Review Article: Numerical analysis of the seismic behaviour of earth dam

Abstract. The present study concerns analysis of the seismic response of earth dams. The behaviour of both the shell and core of the dam is described using the simple and popular non associated Mohr-Coulomb criterion. The use of this constitutive model is justified by the difficulty to obtain constitutive parameters for more advanced constitutive relations including isotropic and kinematic hardening. Analyses with real earthquake records show that the seismic loading induces plasticity in a large part of the shell and in the lower part of the core. Analysis shows that plasticity should be considered in the analysis of the seismic response of the dam, because it leads to a decrease in the natural frequencies of the dam together to energy dissipation, which could significantly affect the seismic response of the dam. Plastic analysis constitutes also a good tool for the verification of the stability of the dam under seismic loading.