System identification of arch dam model strengthened with CFRP composite materials

This paper presents the structural identification of an arch dam model for the damaged, repaired and strengthened conditions under different water levels. For this aim, an arch dam-reservoir-foundation model has been constructed. Ambient vibration tests have been performed on the damaged, repaired and strengthened dam models for the empty reservoir (0 cm), 10 cm, 20 cm, 30 cm, 40 cm, 50 cm and full reservoir (60 cm) water levels to illustrate the effects of water levels on the dynamics characteristics. Enhanced Frequency Domain Decomposition Method in the frequency domain has been used to extract the dynamic characteristics. The dynamic characteristics obtained from the damaged, repaired and strengthened dam models show that the natural frequencies and damping ratios are considerably affected from the varying water level. The maximum differences between the frequencies for the empty and full reservoir are obtained as 16%, 33%, and 25% for damaged, repaired and strengthened model respectively. Mode shapes obtained from the all models are not affected by the increasing water level. Also, after the repairing and strengthening implementations, the natural frequencies of the arch dam model increase significantly. After strengthening, between 46-92% and 43-62% recovery in the frequencies are calculated for empty and full reservoir respectively. Apparently, after strengthening implementation, the mode shapes obtained are more acceptable and distinctive compared to those for the damaged model.