Abstract:
Due to factors such as construction quality, soil weathering, and laboratory testing errors, the spatial distribution of material parameters in earth-rock dams exhibits inherent uncertainty.However, current dam safety evaluations predominantly rely on deterministic analysis, which fails to adequately account for the impact of parameter uncertainty on structural safety.Therefore, it is essential to investigate the structural response of dams considering the spatial variability of dam material parameters.Based on random field theory, this study analyzed the spatial variability characteristics of material parameters in the Nuozhadu core-wall rockfill dam.Static and dynamic stochastic finite element analysis were conducted, and the results were compared with static stochastic finite element calculations from the Guanyinyan Dam.The results showed that the vertical correlation distance of the dam materials for the Nuozhadu Dam with better filling quality was larger, and the standard deviation and exceedance probability of the maximum settlement of the dam body at completion and the maximum deformation inclination of the dam crest during water storage were smaller.In addition, using uniform parameters for deterministic dynamic finite element calculations of the Nuozhadu Dam has 41% probability of underestimating the peak acceleration and 49% probability of underestimating dynamic displacement of the dam body.These results provide reference for establishing an uncertainty structure response safety evaluation system that considers spatial variability of materials.