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The construction of high rockfill dams on deep overburden in seismically active regions poses significant challenges. Currently, there are no standardized guidelines for defining the computational domain range in seismic analysis, necessitating the establishment of a universally applicable computational domain range that optimizes the balance between computational accuracy and efficiency. This has critical engineering implications for the seismic analysis of rockfill dams on deep overburden. This study employed the seismic wave input method to consider the dynamic interaction between the dam, overburden, and infinite domain. A systematic investigation was conducted on a concrete-faced rockfill dam (CFRD) constructed on deep overburden, considering the influences of overburden thickness, dam height, overburden properties, soil layer configuration, ground motion intensity, and the frequency content of the seismic waves. The acceleration response and seismic deformation of the dam were analyzed. Subsequently, the computational domain range corresponding to various levels of acceptable engineering precision was established. The results indicated that the lateral boundary length should extend a minimum distance equal to the sum of 3 times the overburden depth and 1.2 times the maximum dam height. Additionally, the depth below the overburden–bedrock interface should extend at least 1.2 times the maximum dam height. This study provides a crucial foundation for determining the optimal computational domain range in the seismic analysis of rockfill dams constructed on deep overburden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the meshless method is extended to simulate the interaction between soil and structure through 2D finite element (FE) model. The background mesh line shared by each surface of interface is introduced for Gauss points' generation and interpolation. Thus, instead of a series of interface elements, the whole soil–structure interface can be presented by an arbitrary number of nodes with flexible distribution on the contacting surfaces. The radial basis function (RBF) is introduced as the interpolation function to obtain the displacement of each Gauss points by surrounding the nodes along the surfaces. The research of shape parameters and the rate of convergence are also conducted. With non-matching nodes interface, the soil and structure zone can be modeled independently and connected with the proposed non-matching nodes interface flexibly and effectively. Furthermore, the proposed method can easily enable cross-scale modeling, which has high utility for enabling refined analysis without excessively increasing the computational costs. In addition, under the standard finite element framework, nonlinear constitutive models can be employed to capture the complex behaviors at the interface. Several simulations are presented to demonstrate the high flexibility, extensive applicability and precision of the proposed non-matching nodes interface based on meshless method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In simulations of geotechnical engineering, interface elements are versatile tools and are widely used in the modeling of the relative displacements between soils and structures. To consider the case of a local failure adjacent to a soil-structure interaction region, a partial mesh refinement should be performed. In this study, a three-dimensional (3D) interface element with an arbitrary number of nodes is developed as a new technique to reduce the complexity and difficulty of managing the various scales between soil and structure. An asymmetric number of nodes is permissible on the two sliding surfaces. In this manner, soil and structure can be discretized independently, and the various-scale model is established conveniently and rapidly. The accuracy of the proposed method is demonstrated through numerical examples. The various-scale approach is employed in an elasto-plastic seismic damage analysis of a buried concrete drainage culvert of a nuclear power plant. The results indicate that by applying the proposed method, the number of elements decreased by 72.5%, and the computational efficiency improved by 59% with little influence on accuracy. The proposed method is powerful for local damage evolution analyses of both soil and structure and possesses great practical significance and the potential for further application, especially for nonlinear analysis of large-scale geotechnical engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimating the cracking capacity of the face slab and recommending effective crack-control measures are important for the anti-seismic safety of concrete-faced rockfill dams (CFRDs). In this paper, two-dimensional analyses of CFRDs are performed to simulate the seismic cracking behavior of conventional reinforced concrete (RC) face slab and a type of composite face slab. The composite face slab is composed of a ductile fiber-reinforced cement-based composite (DFRCC) layer and an RC substrate. For this purpose, a co-axial rotating smeared crack model for concrete and DFRCC is coupled with the generalized plasticity model for the rockfill material, and then implemented in a finite element program. The results show that during strong earthquakes, an RC slab is more likely to develop a penetrating macro-crack in its thickness dimension. In contrast, the crack-controlling composite slab demonstrates excellent resistance to seismic cracking, and no penetrating macro-cracks are observed. Major harmful cracks that form in the concrete substrate are stopped by the DFRCC layer in composite slabs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]