Coupled FE seismic analysis of a zoned earth dam

In this paper the results of a series of 2D dynamic hydro-mechanically coupled FE numerical analyses concerning the San Pietro dam are illustrated. The analyses have been carried out by using the numerical code TOCHNOG and the strain-hardening elasto-plastic con-stitutive model proposed by di Prisco, combined with the non-linear elastic model by Lade and Nelson. The parameters of the model have been calibrated by fitting the laboratory test results obtained on samples extracted from the dam. The input motions consist of accelerograms selected from a worldwide database, assuming as a reference the seismicity of the area where the dam is located. The numerical results show that for the selected seismic loading the dam exhibits a satisfactory performance.