Probabilistic investigation of the effect of reservoir height on seismic performance of concrete gravity dams using Monte Carlo simulation

A large part of the dynamic force acted on the dam is the hydrodynamic force induced by dam and reservoir interaction which increases the seismic response of dam. Also, the water level has essential role in the creation of induced hydrodynamic force in reservoir because of interaction. In this paper, in order to investigation of the sensitivity of the seismic performance of system, Monte Carlo simulation with Latin Hypercube Sampling is used in which the reservoir height was selected as random input and the dam crest displacement, maximum value of hydrodynamic pressure and 1st and 3rd principle stresses in heel and toe of dam were considered as output responses and the sensitivity of responses were reliably examined under seismic loading. Considering of Pine Flat concrete gravity dam as case study, a finite element model is developed and implemented into a computer code using Ansys software for seismic analysis of system. Consider to obtained results, it is revealed that the reservoir height how can effect on seismic behaviour of system due to earthquake. Investigation of the obtained results it is obvious that the increasing of reservoir height around the greater than 70% height of full reservoir, considerable increase the seismic response of concrete dam body.