Open Access

ARTICLE

Damage Evolution and Dynamic Characteristics of Arch Dams under Seismic Action

Shuigen Hu^1,2, Hao Wang³, Qingyang Wei^4,*, Maosen Cao^2,4, Drahomír Novák⁵

1 College of Civil and Architecture Engineering, Chuzhou University, Chuzhou, 239000, China
2 Anhui Provincial International Joint Research Center of Date Diagnosis and Smart Maintenance on Bridge Structures, Chuzhou, 239000, China
3 Water Resources Research Institute of Shandong Province, Jinan, 250014, China
4 College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Hohai University, Changzhou, 213200, China
5 Faculty of Civil Engineering, Brno University Technology, Brno, 60200, Czech Republic

* Corresponding Author: Qingyang Wei. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Artificial Intelligence and Data Mining Applications in Fault Diagnosis and Damage Identification of Infrastructure)

Structural Durability & Health Monitoring 2026, 20(2), 1 https://doi.org/10.32604/sdhm.2025.073665

Received 23 September 2025; Accepted 05 November 2025; Issue published 31 March 2026

Abstract

As vital hydraulic infrastructures, concrete dams demand uncompromising safety assurance. Seismic effect commonly serves as a potential factor contributing to the damage of concrete dams, making seismic performance analysis crucial for structural integrity. Numerical simulation based on damage mechanics is usually considered as the approach for investigating the seismic damage behavior of concrete dams. To address the limitations of existing studies and extract the key dynamic characteristics of concrete arch dams, a concrete elastoplastic damage mechanics model is adopted, a seismic load input technique involving the viscoelastic boundary along with equivalent nodal forces is generated, and a spring-contact pair simulation technique for modeling the transverse joints of arch dams is developed. The damage process of an arch dam under the classic Koyna seismic load is simulated, with the damage evolution process under seismic action being characterized. The middle sections of the arch dam near the upper portion are considered regions prone to damage under seismic action. Furthermore, the nonlinear dynamic characteristics caused by the opening and closing collision between transverse joints of the arch dam under strong seismic action are extracted. The extracted dynamic characteristic provides a manifestation for the dynamic damage diagnosis of arch dams based on seismic responses.

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Keywords

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