Effective Safety Assessment of Aged Concrete Gravity Dam based on the Reliability Index in a Seismically Induced Site

Abstract

The seismic performance of the aged-concrete gravity dam (aged-CGD) by safety assessment based on the reliability-index is the main focal point of this study. Determination of reliability-index has been handled by the site seismic hazard analysis with the help of PSHRisk-tool (developed by the authors) and risk assessment. Incorporated with the uncertainties, the failure probability has been carried out by the IDA and fragility analysis. For the nonlinear finite element model of the CGD, the concrete damage plasticity (CDP) model is adopted. To investigate the aging effect, the hygro-chemo-mechanical model has been taken for different years consideration. Through the failure risk assessment of serviceability and safety level, the target reliability index has been determined here for an existing CGD in Korea. Despite several types of research on the CGD safety assessment, the main novelty of this proposed approach will help the dam operator to check the safety barrier for the aged-CGD. A safety index is investigated by comparing the target reliability-index of the age-CGD with the reliability-index for two potential earthquake levels. However, the proposed approach can implement to check the safety range of any seismic site for any set of earthquakes.