Application of G-N high-order boundary condition on time harmonic analysis of concrete gravity dam-reservoir systems

Abstract

PurposeThe response of an idealized triangular concrete gravity dam is studied due to horizontal and vertical ground motions for both fully reflective and absorptive reservoir bottom conditions. For each combination, in this paper different orders of Givoli-Neta (G-N) high-order truncation condition are aimed to be evaluated from accuracy point of view by comparing the results against corresponding exact solutions which relies on utilizing a two-dimensional fluid hyper-element.Design/methodology/approachIn present study, the dynamic analysis of concrete gravity dam-reservoir systems is formulated by Finite Element (FE)-(FE-TE) approach. In this technique, dam and reservoir are discretized by plane solid and fluid finite elements. Moreover, the G-N high-order condition imposed at the reservoir truncation boundary. This task is formulated by employing a truncation element at that boundary. It is emphasized that reservoir far-field is excluded from the discretized model.FindingsIt was observed that trend in gaining accuracy with increase in the order of G-N condition were basically the same for both horizontal and vertical ground motions under full reflective reservoir bottom condition. Moreover, convergence rate increases for absorptive reservoir bottom condition cases in comparison with fully reflective cases. It is also noticed that in certain cases, the responses are hardly distinguishable from corresponding exact responses. This reveals that proposed FE-(FE-TE) analysis technique based on G-N condition is quite successful, and one may fully rely on that for accurate and efficient analysis of concrete gravity dam-reservoir systems.Originality/valueDynamic analysis of concrete gravity dam-reservoir systems are formulated by a new method. The salient aspect of the technique is that it utilizes G-N high-order condition at the truncation boundary. This is achieved by developing a special truncation element which its generalized matrices are derived for Finite Element Method (FEM) programmers. The method is discussed for all types of excitation and reservoir bottom conditions. It must be emphasized that although time harmonic analysis is considered in the present study, the main part of formulation is explained in the context of time domain. Therefore, the approach can easily be extended for transient type of analysis.