Scrutinizing the Response of Concrete Gravity Dams to Earthquake Loading

Dams are constructed for storing water for the irrigation, water supply, generation of electricity or combination of above. The civilization starts from the bank of rivers and human beings thought of storage of water as it is the basic need of human beings. The dry and wet season of the nature forced for the construction of dams. As the society develops, the requirement of water becomes an essential part of human life. It also becomes a part of basic need of industrial development. Hence more thinking in that field leads to the construction of more dams. The dams in earlier period were constructed of earth and it has its own limitation and it is difficult to satisfy the stability criteria and more susceptible to overtopping. Then turned to the masonry construction. Due to the limited material availability and the huge cross section, masonry dams also have limitations. After the invention of cement, more concrete gravity dams were constructed for the storage of huge quantity of water. At the infant stages the design consideration was based on simple static analysis. But in real situation ground acceleration are happening due to the earthquakes. This may cause failure of dam structures. Hence more study was initiated in that field for understanding the behaviour of dam structures to earthquake loading. Though dynamic analysis and design has given the answer to the safety aspects of concrete gravity dams to a certain extent, but still pending more to explain. The dam