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System reliability analysis of foundation stability of gravity dams considering anisotropic seepage and multiple sliding surfaces

Jia-Nan He (State Key Laboratory of Hydraulics and Mountain River Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China) (Wenzhou Water Resources Bureau, Wenzhou, China)
De-wei Yang (Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute, Nanjing, China)
Wu Zhenyu (State Key Laboratory of Hydraulics and Mountain River Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China)

Engineering Computations

ISSN: 0264-4401

Article publication date: 16 August 2022

Issue publication date: 23 August 2022

138

Abstract

Purpose

For gravity dams built on foundations with directional joint sets, the seepage in the foundation possesses anisotropic characteristics and may have adverse effects on the foundation stability. A methodology for system reliability analysis of gravity dam foundations considering anisotropic seepage and multiple sliding surfaces is proposed in this paper.

Design/methodology/approach

Anisotropic seepages in dam foundations are simulated using finite element method (FEM) with the equivalent continuum model (ECM), and their effect on dam foundation stability is involved by uplift pressures acting on the potential sliding surfaces. The system failure probability of the dam foundation is efficiently estimated using Monte Carlo method (MCM) combined with response surface method (RSM).

Findings

The case study shows that it is necessary to consider the possibly adverse effect of anisotropic seepage on foundation stability of gravity dams and the deterministic analysis of the foundation stability may be misleading. The system reliability analysis of the dam foundation is justified, as the uncertainties in shear strength parameters of the foundation rocks and joint sets as well as aperture, connectivity and spacing of the joint sets are quantified and the system effect of the multiple potential sliding surfaces on the foundation reliability is reasonably considered.

Originality/value

(1) A methodology is proposed for efficient system reliability analysis of foundation stability of gravity dams considering anisotropic seepage and multiple sliding surfaces (2) The influence of anisotropic seepage on the stability of gravity dam foundation  is revealed (3) The influence of estimation errors of RSMs on the system reliability assessment of dam foundation is investigated.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Financial support provided by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2018YFC0407103) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51909174) are gratefully acknowledged. The authors also would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions to improve the quality of the paper.

Citation

He, J.-N., Yang, D.-w. and Zhenyu, W. (2022), "System reliability analysis of foundation stability of gravity dams considering anisotropic seepage and multiple sliding surfaces", Engineering Computations, Vol. 39 No. 8, pp. 3108-3128. https://doi.org/10.1108/EC-08-2021-0488

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited

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