Concrete gravity dams are susceptible to sudden failure under specific dynamic loading conditions such as earthquakes. In the present study, the authors explore an integrated experimental-numerical approach to identify the susceptible regions in a concrete gravity dam and characterize the localized crack patterns originating from these critical sections. A laboratory-scaled prototype dam model is prepared and tested using a Shake Table to observe the failure patterns under dynamic loading. A particle-based computational framework is employed to simulate the experimentally obtained crack patterns. The validated computational framework is then used to capture the evolution of arbitrarily evolving cracks during the seismic collapse of a concrete gravity dam.

混凝土重力坝在地震等特定动态荷载条件下容易发生突然破坏。在本研究中，作者探索了一种综合的实验数值方法来识别混凝土重力坝中的易受影响区域，并描述源自这些关键部分的局部裂缝模式。使用振动台准备和测试实验室规模的原型大坝模型，以观察动态载荷下的破坏模式。采用基于粒子的计算框架来模拟实验获得的裂纹模式。然后使用经过验证的计算框架来捕捉混凝土重力坝地震倒塌过程中任意演变的裂缝的演变。