Hydrodynamic pressure on lateral side of dam excited by harmonic seismic vibration: A novel formulation

Dam vibration caused by earthquakes will lead to the hydrodynamic pressure (HP thereafter) on the lateral sides of dams, which has a significant effect on the dynamic response of dams in earthquake events. In this study, the dynamic mesh technique in CFD is adopted to perform the numerical computation of the HP on dams excited by harmonic vibration. Based on the computational results, the influences on the HP on dams caused by the amplitude, period of dam vibration, and depth of reservoir water are studied systematically. Meanwhile, a novel formulation named Ye's formulation is proposed to quickly determine the HP on dams excited by harmonic vibration. Compared with the traditional Westergaard simplified formulation, Ye's formulation not only has greatly improved the accuracy but also is applicable to both vertical and arbitrarily inclined dam surfaces, as well as is applicable for nonbreaking and breaking waves, indicating that Ye's formulation has better applicability in engineering practice.