Investigation of Non-fully Similar Laws of Damage to an Arch Dam in Shaking Table Model Tests

Abstract

In order to overcome the defect that the general shaking table test can’t clarify the scale relationship between the prototype structure and the scale model in the damaged area based on the fully similar laws, we derived a method that can analyze the relationship between the prototype structure and the scale model in the damaged area based on non-fully similar lows and verified it. We selected the appropriate material (the emulation concrete material, ECM), which has a good scale relationship with the prototype material in the elastic stage, the crack appearance stage, and crack propagation stage (damage stage). We proposed some similar ratios to reveal the similar relationship between the prototype structure and the scale model in the elastic stage, the crack appearance stage, and the crack propagation stage. Especially, we proposed two similar ratios: cr and hr (deduced by the fracture toughness similarity requirements and the fracture energy similarity requirements, respectively) which can well reflect the similar relationship between the prototype structure and the scale model in the damaged area. In order to verify these ratios, we compared the results of the prototype structure numerical simulation with those of the shaking table test of the scale model. The results show that hr has higher accuracy for predicting the relationship between the prototype structure and the scale model in the damaged area.

Shaking Table Test and Numerical Simulation Study of the Reinforcement Strengthening of a Dam

“…In addition, the SR makes the fracture region of the dam diffuse. Due to the low reinforcement ratio, whether the reinforcement is used in the dam structure has little impact on the test results of natural frequency and displacement, but has a great impact on the crack propagation [30,31]. Figure 6 shows that the maximum tensile strains dramatically change on the downstream slope of the WRM-scaled model (points C and D) and the downstream slope of the guide wall of the OM-scaled model D) as the peak acceleration increases.…”

“…In addition, the SR makes the fracture region of the dam diffuse. Due to the low reinforcement ratio, whether the reinforcement is used in the dam structure has little impact on the test results of natural frequency and displacement, but has a great impact on the crack propagation [30,31].…”

“…Furthermore, ECM has a stress-strain curve similar to that of common concrete, as shown in Figure 1. More test details are found in the literature [29,30]. The material damping ratio of ECM is less than 5%.…”