Novel experimental and numerical techniques for efficient earthquake safety assessment of critical dam infrastructure

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Dam failures may lead to catastrophic consequences, extending far beyond the immediate neighbourhood of dam sites due to reservoir release or overtopping. Many dams in Canada and worldwide have been in service for over 50 years, and their initial outdated design generally fails to meet modern safety criteria. Loss of lives and widespread destruction of homes and businesses due to recent floods worldwide are another clear illustration of the urgent need for comprehensive identification of the tremendous risks posed by aging dam infrastructure. In a context of budgetary restrictions, such identification of most vulnerable dams is required to prioritise their retrofit. This is even more urgent as aging dam infrastructure must resist increased critical loads due mainly to: (i) updated seismic hazard accounting for continuously improved understanding of earthquakes, and (ii) more frequent flooding events induced by changing climate patterns and landscape. In this context, dam owners, whether government, municipalities, or private sector, are faced with managing risks within cost constraints before triggering retrofit interventions, based primarily on field inspections and findings from safety evaluation reviews. Retrofit decisions must be well grounded at the risk of focusing on dams not presenting major imminent threats and delaying rehabilitation of others that must be prioritized. The long-term objective of this proposal is to provide engineers, researchers, and ultimately decision makers, with experimentally-validated simulations and experimental techniques for effective and efficient assessment of the earthquake safety and vulnerability of critical dam infrastructure. This research proposal addresses two main themes: (i) developing original 3D simulation models for safety assessment of critical dam infrastructure, and (ii) performing novel experimental tests to address critical dam safety issues. The proposed methodology is highly original and will significantly enhance the practice of safety assessment of dams and appurtenant structures subjected to earthquake loads. The developed 3D numerical models and their experimental validations using accessible data and structures from actual dam sites and available large scale testing equipment is a unique research endeavour that will lead to ground-breaking advances in dam engineering. The developed techniques and findings will have a significant socio-economic impact by reducing the risks of loss of life and property damage associated with dam incidents. Throughout all research phases, guidelines and case studies of actual dams and appurtenant structures will be provided to be advantageously used by dam engineers.