Investigation of Non-fully Similar Laws of Damage to an Arch Dam in Shaking Table Model Tests

Abstract

In order to overcome the defect that the general shaking table test can’t clarify the scale relationship between the prototype structure and the scale model in the damaged area based on the fully similar laws, we derived a method that can analyze the relationship between the prototype structure and the scale model in the damaged area based on non-fully similar lows and verified it. We selected the appropriate material (the emulation concrete material, ECM), which has a good scale relationship with the prototype material in the elastic stage, the crack appearance stage, and crack propagation stage (damage stage). We proposed some similar ratios to reveal the similar relationship between the prototype structure and the scale model in the elastic stage, the crack appearance stage, and the crack propagation stage. Especially, we proposed two similar ratios: c r and h r (deduced by the fracture toughness similarity requirements and the fracture energy similarity requirements, respectively) which can well reflect the similar relationship between the prototype structure and the scale model in the damaged area. In order to verify these ratios, we compared the results of the prototype structure numerical simulation with those of the shaking table test of the scale model. The results show that h r has higher accuracy for predicting the relationship between the prototype structure and the scale model in the damaged area.