Seismic Deformation of Dams by Correlative Methods

Analyses are presented of the anticipated earthquake performance of three generally similar earth dams, situated in a seismically active area of northern California. The series of analyses illustrates a cost-effective approach which involved full-scale finite element analyses of one dam, and the use of limited dynamic analysis techniques and correlations to evaluate the other two. The simplified techniques were applied only after testing them against the finite element analyses, information is also presented on how the results of simplified and full-scale dynamic analysis procedures correlate