Earthquake induced joint opening in arch dams

The behaviour of an arch dam under earthquake loading is investigated. Due to the nature of earthquake acceleration under linear system assumptions high tensile stresses occur and are transmitted across the block joints. Within this analysis the influence of block joint opening and sliding during earthquake excitation is studied. During a fraction of seconds the joints can open and therefore a change in the bearing behaviour takes place. The forces are transmitted by bending moments and introduce higher stresses on dam's upstream and downstream faces. The calculated results of linear and nonlinear analyses are discussed.