Experimental Study of Small Scale Dam Models

An experimental study of a small-scale model of a concrete gravity dam was conducted. Tests were carried out to simulate the hydrostatic, hydrodynamic, and seismic loads. The dynamic loads were estimated using the simplified method of analysis in concrete gravity dams. A loading mechanism with two actuators was designed to apply four concentrated loads at the upstream face of the dam model. The static load that represents the hydrostatic pressure was kept constant. The dynamic load was applied cyclically by an actuator to represent the dynamic effects of the earthquake loading. An existing concrete gravity dam monolith was modeled. The material properties of the model were maintained the same as those of the prototype. The gravity load effect of the dam was accounted for analytically. Results of the experiments show that it is possible to simulate the hydrodynamic load on a dam model using a finite number of concentrated mechanical loads. Measured strains in the dam model were found to be similar to the strains in the prototype predicted using available finite element analysis techniques.