ANALYTICAL-NUMERICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF DYNAMIC FLUID-STRUCTURE INTERACTION PROBLEMS WITH APPLICATION TO CONCRETE DAMS AND LOCKS
Dams, Locks, Fluid-Structure Interaction, FEM, Prescribed Pressure Field Artifice, Modified Transfer Matrix Method, Sloshing.
Concrete gravity dams and locks are structures, almost always large, which have a marked variety of uses, according to the needs of each region where they are implemented. In the engineering of these structures, it is essential to guarantee the minimum safety conditions, since their rupture can generate real catastrophes both in the economic, social and environmental spheres. As a result, this work deals with an analytical-numerical and experimental study of fluid-structure dynamic interaction problems, with application in concrete gravity dams and locks. At first, a simplified analytical methodology, called Artifice of the Prescribed Pressure Field (ACPP), was made to determine the uncoupled and coupled fluid-structure natural frequencies associated with the dominant modes of additional mass in an incompressible regime. ACPP covers different vibration modes and different boundary conditions for a dam-reservoir and lock-reservoir coupled problem. The results obtained by the ACPP were compared with the finite element method (FEM), using the ANSYS software, with the Pseudo-dynamic method, with the modified transfer matrix method (MMTM) and with results from the literature. Comparative studies were applied to different dam geometries. The responses were satisfactory and demonstrated a good agreement. Studies under free and forced vibrations (harmonic load) were still carried out, evaluating the influence of parameters linked to the dynamic behavior of dams and locks. In addition to the analytical and numerical part, the work includes an experimental approach. A harmonic vibrating table was constructed and used to study the effects of free surface sloshing in acoustic cavities with rigid boundaries. In this perspective, the Video Motion Capture Technique (MVCT) was used. The experimental results were also consistent and satisfactory. Therefore, this work contributes in several aspects related to fluid-structure interaction in dams and locks.