Computational fracture analysis of concrete gravity dams by crack-embedded elements––toward an engineering evaluation of seismic safety

From a point of view to utilize fracture mechanics of concrete for the solution of engineering problems, the problems in crack modeling, computational algorithm, and damping implementation are discussed in conjunction with safety assessment of concrete dam against large earthquakes. It is shown that the formulation for the crack-embedded element has an analogy with that of computational plasticity. This analogy enables us to utilize the return-mapping algorithm well established in computational plasticity for the dynamic analysis of crack growth in concrete. The ways of implementing damping to avoid diffused cracking are presented and simple examples of numerical analysis are shown to demonstrate the effect of damping and the performance of appropriate damping implementation for cracked elements.