International Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (ICEES 2011),

NUST, Islamabad, Pakistan

April 25-26, 2011

Amplification and natural frequencies of Khanpur Dam Project

Dr. Irshad Ahmad1, Syed Kazim Mehdi2, Waseem Khan3, Zahid Shahzad4, M. Shakur5

1
Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar

Pakistan

(irspk@yahoo.com, drirshadahmad@nwfpuet.edu.pk)
2
Director, Seismic Studies, WAPDA, Tarbela Dam Project, Pakistan

(sspkazim@gmail.com)

Research Associate, National Center of Excellence in Geology, University of Peshawar

3

(eec_pesh@yahoo.com)

4
Assistant Director (Seismology, WAPDA), Tarbela Dam Project

geoseismology@yahoo.co.in

5
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar Pakistan

Abstract

Earthquake records at crest and toe of Khanpur Dam are analyzed in this paper to find dam amplification

factors and first three natural frequencies of the dam. Beam shear model is also used to estimate the dam natural

frequencies. The earthquake data consists of fourteen events recorded from October 10, 2008 to November 15,

1
International Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (ICEES 2011),
NUST, Islamabad, Pakistan
April 25-26, 2011

2010. The records are filtered to remove noise. Amplification factors along the dam x-section vary from 1.2 to

3.7. First three natural frequencies of the dam are found from the ratio of the Fourier amplitude of the crest and

toe. These frequencies are 2.5, 6.5, and 9.0 Hz. Dam natural frequencies are also found from Beam Shear Model

which are 2.6, 6.0, and 9.4 Hz. Natural frequencies from the observed records and analytical

closely. It is concluded that damage to dam does not only depend on the peak ground acceleration of the input

motion but also on its frequency content. Therefore frequency content must be considered while selecting time

histories for dynamic analysis of the dam. It is also concluded that the beam shear model can be used to estimate

the dynamic parameters of Khanpur dam.

Keywords: Dam; Amplification; Fourier Amplitude; natural frequency

1. Introduction

Khanpur Dam
 is located 33
4431N, 725609E on the Haro River
 near the town  Khanpur
of ,

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, about 25 miles (40 km) from Islamabad, Pakistan (figure-1, and figure

2). It forms Khanpur Lake, a reservoir which supplies drinking water to Islamabad and Rawalpindi and

irrigation water to many of the agricultural and industrial areas surrounding the cities. The dam was

completed in 1983 after a 15 year construction period believed to have cost Rs. 1,352 million. It is 167

feet (51 m) high and stores 110,000 acre feet (140,000,000 m³) of water.

2
International Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (ICEES 2011),
NUST, Islamabad, Pakistan
April 25-26, 2011

Figure 1 Arial View of Khanpur Dam

3
International Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (ICEES 2011),
NUST, Islamabad, Pakistan
April 25-26, 2011

Figure 2 Khanpur Dam Reservoir

The x-section of the dam is shown in figure-3. The dam is built of core, filter material, and rocks fill.

Figure 3 Typical cross section of the dam

Khanpur dam lies in seismic zone 2b. The

[1] dam is heavily instrumented. The accelerometers

and seismometers are installed on and around the dam. In this research paper strong motion records at

crest and toe of the dam are analyzed. The data consists of 14 records from different earthquakes. The

data contains noise and is, therefore, filtered in SeismoSignal, freely available softwar

motion data processing. Dam amplification factors are found from the data recorded at crest and toe of

t h e d a m . F o u r i e r a m p l i t u d e s a r e a l s o e v a l u a t e d u s i n g F a s t F o u r i e r Tr a n s f o r m a l g o r i t h m . F i r

natural frequencies of the dam are then found both from the observed records and analytical method.

2. Data processing

The records contained noise. Unprocessed acceleration, velocity, and displacement time histories of an

earthquake recorded at the dam crest on 10/10/2010 are shown in figure 4. It can be seen th

displacement record is unreasonable and contains permanent dam displacements after the earthquake.

4
International Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (ICEES 2011),
NUST, Islamabad, Pakistan
April 25-26, 2011

0.15
0.1
Acceleration [g]

0.05
0
-0.05
-0.1
-0.15

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
Time [sec]

4
Velocity [cm/sec]

-2

-4

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
Time [sec]

0.5
0.4
Displacement [cm]

0.3
0.2
0.1
0
-0.1
-0.2

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
Time [sec]

Figure 4 Unprocessed time histories

To process the records, a high pass filter of 0.1 Hz, and low pass filter of 25 Hz was selected for band-

pass filter. The frequencies of band pass filter are chosen on the visual inspection of displacement time

histories. The processed records are shown in figure 5.

0.15
0.1
Acceleration [g]

0.05
0
-0.05
-0.1
-0.15

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
Time [sec]

4
Velocity [cm/sec]

-2

-4

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
Time [sec]

5
International Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (ICEES 2011),
NUST, Islamabad, Pakistan
April 25-26, 2011

Displacement [cm] 0.4

0.3
0.2
0.1
0
-0.1
-0.2
-0.3
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
Time [sec]

Figure 5 processed records

It can be seen in figure 5 that the displacement at crest of the dam comes back to zer

earthquake is ended. A summary of peak ground accelerations, velocities and displacements recorded

at crest along the dam cross-section are given in table-1.

Table 1 ground motion parameters from processed and unprocessed records

Processed
Ground motion parameter Unprocessed

Peak ground acceleration 0.170 g 0.173 g

Peak ground velocity 4.887 cm/sec 4.577 cm/sec

Peak ground displacement 0.511 cm 0.440 cm

All the fourteen records are likewise processed.

6
International Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (ICEES 2011),
NUST, Islamabad, Pakistan
April 25-26, 2011

3. Dam Amplification Factors from records

The dam amplification factor is defined as the ratio between peak ground acceleration (PGA) recorded

at crest of the dam and peak groun

acceleration recorded at toe of the dam

for the same earthquake i.e.

(1)

Amplification factors calculated from all records are listed in table-2. It can be seen th

amplification factors vary from 1.2 to 3.7 depending upon the frequency content of the input motion

(toe records). It can also be noticed from the table-2 that the predominant frequencies of the toe records

vary from 2.6 to 10.0.

Table 2 Earthquake records and dam amplification factors

date of PGA(g) Dam Amplification Toe Predominant frequency

S.NO
Earthquake Toe Crest (Hz)

1 22/10/2008 0.003 0.008 2.7 10.0

2 4/1/2009 0.004 0.012 3.0 3.3

3 20/2/2009 0.003 0.011 3.7 7.1

4 3/4/2009 0.001 0.001 1.5 5.6

5 6/4/2009 0.001 0.003 2.8 3.3

6 9/4/2009 0.001 0.002 2.1 3.1

7 13/7/2009 0.001 0.002 1.5 5.6

8 27/7/2009 0.003 0.006 1.8 5.0

9 29/10/2009 0.003 0.009 2.6 5.6

7
International Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (ICEES 2011),
NUST, Islamabad, Pakistan
April 25-26, 2011

10 17/9/2010 0.001 0.002 2.2 8.3

11 9/10/2010 0.003 0.003 1.2 8.3

12 10/10/2010 0.077 0.173 2.2 6.3

13 7/11/2010 0.001 0.002 2.0 10.0

14 15/11/2010 0.002 0.006 2.6 2.6

8
International Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (ICEES 2011),
NUST, Islamabad, Pakistan
April 25-26, 2011

4. Natural frequencies of dam from observed records

Natural frequencies of the Khanpur dam are calculated from Fourier amplitude spe

observed records. Natural frequencies from the observed records have been determined by various

researchers [2, 3]. Fast Fourier transformation is used to find Fourier amplitudes. Ra

Fourier amplitudes of the crest and toe records are calculated for each earthquake.

ordinates correspond to the natural frequencies of the dam. Only four graphs are shown in figure-6

for four earthquakes.

9
International Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (ICEES 2011),
NUST, Islamabad, Pakistan
April 25-26, 2011

Figure 6 Peaks corresponds to natural frequencies of the dam

Average ordinates of the ratio of Fourier amplitudes for all the fourteen records are shown in figure

7 . A s i n d i c a t e d t h e f i r s t t h r e e n a t u r a l f r e q u e n

f1=2.5 Hz, f2=6.5 Hz, and f3=9.0 Hz.

10
 International Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (ICEES 2011),
NUST, Islamabad, Pakistan
April 25-26, 2011

f1=2.5 Hz

f1=9.0 Hz

f1=6.5 Hz

Figure 7 Average of Fourier amplitude ratios of all 14 records.

5. Analytical Model

Shear beam approach to model the two dimensional response of the dam is used. Thi

r e quir e s t he da m t o be t r ia ngul a r in x-s e c t ion and hom ogenous [4] . St ri c tl y spe a ki ng t he s he a r be

model is not applicable to Khanpur dam. However, since the dam is only 10.5 m wide at crest, which is

closed to a triangle and the core is larger compared to other components in the dam x-sec

method can loosely be applied to Khanpur dam. The advantage is simplicity of the method.

To apply the method, we need to estimate the average shear wave velocity of the dam. Shear wave

velocity (Vs) proposed by Swada et al. 1975 [5] are given in table-3. The Vs-profile is plotted in figure-

8. However use of lower bound is recommended [6].

11
International Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (ICEES 2011),
NUST, Islamabad, Pakistan
April 25-26, 2011

Table 3 Shear wave velocity equations for dam

Depth (m) Shear Wave Velocity Profiles in Core Zone (m/sec)

Low Bound Upper Bound

0-5 Vs-210 m/s

5-30 Vs=140 Z0.34 Vs=180 Z0.34

30>

Figure 8 Shear wave velocity profile in the core zone

Using the figure 8 as guideline, shear wave velocity for Khanpur dam is estimated to be 350 m/s.

Idealized model of the dam on which the shear beam method is based is shown in figure 9.

12
International Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (ICEES 2011),
NUST, Islamabad, Pakistan
April 25-26, 2011

Figure 9 Idealized model of the dam

The differential equation governing the free vibration response of dam is:

(2)

13
 International Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (ICEES 2011),
NUST, Islamabad, Pakistan
April 25-26, 2011

In the above equation,

 is the density and G is shear modulus of the dam, z is the depth below

tip, t is time, and u is the horizontal displacement of dam.

The solution of differential equation yields the natural frequencies of the dam

(3)

where j is the natural circular frequency of the dam in the jth mode and
j are constants respectively

equal to 2.4, 5.52, and 8.65 for the first, second, and third mode.

Using equation-3, the first three natural frequencies of the dam are estimated to be:

f1=2.6 Hz, f2=6.0 Hz, and f3=9.4 Hz.

6. Conclusions

The following points are noted in this paper.

1. The amplification factors for dam vary from 1.2 to 3.7. This means that damage to dam does

not only depend on the peak ground acceleration of the input motion but also on its frequency

content. It is therefore strongly recommended to consider frequency conte

motion in the selection of time histories for dynamic analysis of dam.

2. The first three natural frequencies of the dam from the observed records are found to be 2.5,

6.5, and 9.0 Hz.

3. The first three natural frequencies of the dam from shear beam model are 2.6, 6.0, and 9.4 Hz.

4. The frequencies from the observed records and analytical method match closely. This means

that the beam shear method can be employed to find the dynamic response of Khanpur dam.

14
International Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (ICEES 2011),
NUST, Islamabad, Pakistan
April 25-26, 2011

References

[1] Building Code of Pakistan, Seismic Provisions, 2007.

[2] U e d a M . , T o y o d a Y. , S h i o j i r i H . , a n R
d eSs ao tnoaun tMf.r, e “q u e n c y o f c o n c r e t e a r c h d a m

e v a l u a t e d f r o m o b s e r v a t i o n a l i n - s i t u r e c o r d s a n d e f f e c t

features”, Proceedings Japan Society of Civil Engineering, 2000, issue 654, pp 207-222.

[3] C a s t r o R . R . , M u c c i a r e l l i M . ,

“D e t e r m i n a t i o n o f t h e C h a r a c t e r i s t i c f re q u e n c y o f t w o D a m s l o c a t e d i n t h e re g i o n o f C a

Italy”, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Vol. 88, No. 2, pp. 503-511, April 1998.

[4] Kramer, S.L. “Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering”, Prentice Hall

[5] Sawada, Y. and Takahashi, T., “Study on the material properties and the earthquake

Behaviors of rockfill dam,” Proc. of 4th Japan Earthquake Engineering Symposium,

Pp.695-702, 1975.

[6] Ik So, H., and Byung-Hyum, O., “Applicability of the existing empirical method for

evaluating shear wave velocity in core zone to Korean dam sites”

15