BRITE Synergy: Seismic Cracking of Embankments and Earth Dams

堤坝和土坝的安全性依赖于对地震引起的变形的充分评估。当受到地震荷载时，堤坝和土坝可能会沉降，横向和纵向变形，并可能在纵向和/或横向方向上出现裂缝。裂缝被认为是强烈地震对土坝造成的最危险的后果之一，因为裂缝会增加渗透和内部侵蚀，从而导致管道破裂。地震后观测到的土坝裂缝通常与地震引起的永久变形引起的拉应力和应变有关。鉴于2008年汶川地震后数千座大坝的广泛破坏，目前估计地震引起的裂缝的方法似乎不够。这项研究旨在促进我们对地震期间堤坝和土坝开裂过程的理解，并为从业人员提供改进的工具。这个促进工程变革和公平进步的研究思路（BRITE）协同项目旨在证明静态分析可以提供有关地震引起的裂缝位置和大小的信息的假设，但挑战了当前执行二维平面应变分析的实践标准，以估计土坝和大坝的横向裂缝。这项工作不仅有利于岩土工程和大坝工程，而且有利于整个社会。这项工作的一项重要成果是更新了个案研究数据库，以及收集今后资料的准则和议定书。这项研究也将有利于其他领域，如采矿工程，例如，研究的目标将通过一些协同活动来实现，这些活动将把相互脱节的工作、核实或验证未经证实的假设和看法以及新的工作汇总起来，以得出一般性结论，从而使总体成果超过各部分的总和。这项工作将结合联合收割机现有的信息，以案例研究和经验建议的形式，并从数值模拟的结果。它将扩展和现代化数据库，更新和改进经验方法，并对实际大坝进行详细的动态三维数值分析，即加州的Lenihan大坝和巴拿马运河的Gatun大坝。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The safety of embankments and earth dams relies on an adequate assessment of seismically-induced deformations. When subjected to earthquake loading, embankments and earth dams may settle, deform laterally and longitudinally, and may exhibit cracking in the longitudinal and/or transverse directions. Cracks are considered one of the most hazardous consequences of strong earthquake shaking on earthen dams, as they can lead to piping failure due to increased seepage and internal erosion through the cracks. Observed cracks in earth dams after an earthquake are most often associated with tensile stresses and strains resulting from earthquake-induced permanent deformations. Current methods to estimate earthquake-induced cracking seem inadequate, given the widespread damage observed in thousands of dams after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. The research is geared at advancing our understanding of the cracking processes in embankments and earth dams during an earthquake and at providing improved tools for practitioners. This Boosting Research Ideas for Transformative and Equitable Advances in Engineering (BRITE) Synergy project aims at proving the hypothesis that static analyses may provide information on the location and size of cracking caused by earthquakes but challenges the current standard of practice of performing two-dimensional plane strain analyses to estimate transverse cracking on earth embankments and dams. The work will not only benefit geotechnical and dam engineering, but society at large. An important outcome of the work is an updated database of case studies, as well as guidelines and protocols for collection of future information. The research will also benefit other fields such as mining engineering, e.g., tailing dams in seismic areas and will contribute to increasing infrastructure resilience.The objectives of the research will be accomplished through a number of synergistic activities that aggregate disconnected work, verify or validate unproven assumptions and perceptions and new work to reach generalizations such that the overall outcome is more than the sum of its parts. The work will combine existing information in the form of case studies and empirical recommendations, and outcomes from numerical simulations. It will expand and modernize databases, update and improve empirical methods, and perform detailed dynamic three-dimensional numerical analyses of actual dams, namely Lenihan Dam in California and Gatun Dam in the Panama Canal.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.