Author(s)

A.N. Yiagos

Abstract

A simplified and efficient numerical model is developed to perform the phenomenological elasto-plastic seismic response analysis of earth dams in order to evaluate their liquefaction potential. 1 Introduction Over the last few years much emphasis has been placed, especially in the USA, on the safety of earth dams subjected to earthquakes (Gazetas [2]). Such an interest is justified by the huge losses of life and property that can result from the catastrophic failure of a dam. The dynamic analysis of earth dams is a very complicated problem. Dams are large nonhomogeneous structures and the material they are composed of is a multi-phase solid-fluid medium. In addition, the behaviour of the dam soil skeleton is highly nonlinear, anisotropic and hysteretic. Finally, the interaction of the dam with its boundarie

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