Abstract
In the past, intake towers built by the Corp of Engineers were designed without consideration of seismic effects. This study investigates an economic approach to determining the ductility of an existing lightly reinforced concrete hydraulic structure. An intake tower, typical of older structure, with reinforcing steel ratios below code specified minimums was selected and modeled using DRAIN-2DX, a dynamic analysis program for personal computers which incorporates the effects of inelastic deformation. The analyses, performed with three separate earthquake acceleration time histories for various model conditions, produced a range of ductility values. The results indicate that ductility is facilitated by the presence of in-plane walls. However, the calculated ductility values may be exaggerated due to the elastic panel elements in the model which redistribute loads away from yielded sections. Also, larger ductility values were calculated for reservoirs with water than for empty reservoirs.
Raines, Amy Lynette (1994). Ductility of lightly reinforced concrete hydraulic structures. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /ETD -TAMU -1994 -THESIS -R1554.