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Characterization of the dynamic behavior of a concrete arch dam by means of forced vibration tests and numerical models
Author(s) -
Gomes Jorge P.,
Lemos José V.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
earthquake engineering and structural dynamics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.218
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1096-9845
pISSN - 0098-8847
DOI - 10.1002/eqe.3259
Subject(s) - arch dam , vibration , structural engineering , arch , engineering , dynamic testing , characterization (materials science) , geotechnical engineering , acoustics , materials science , physics , nanotechnology
Summary The characterization of the dynamic behavior of an arch dam, and its evolution throughout the structure's lifetime, provides important data for the safety control process. Forced vibration tests remain a reliable technique for this purpose. The Baixo Sabor dam is a 123 m high arch dam recently built in Portugal. Forced vibration tests were performed before and after the reservoir filling. Two techniques for forced vibration test are compared, discrete frequency scanning, the standard methodology, and continuous frequency scanning (sine sweep), a new proposed methodology, which allowed faster results without loss of precision. For the interpretation of test results two numerical models of the dam‐reservoir‐foundation system were built, and calibrated with the experimental data. A good match of numerical and experimental results was obtained for the six lowest frequencies and corresponding mode shapes.