Water Compressibility in Earthquake Response of Arch Dams

The earthquake responses of an arch dam are presented for a range of values of the Younǵs modulus of the dam, three different width‐to‐height ratios, and two values of the dam thickness. Study of these response results demonstrates that: the key parameter that determines the significance of water compressibility in the earthquake response of arch dams is Ωr, the ratio of the fundamental resonant frequency of the water in the infinite channel of the reservoir to that of the dam alone; the effects of water compressibility become insignificant for the larger values of Ωr; but for most dams, the Ωr value is smaller and thus these effects should be considered in their earthquake response analysis.