Analysis on the non-linear earthquake response of transverse joint reinforcement of Xiaowan Arch Dam

The Xiaowan Arch Dam is the highest proposal arch dam in the world. The opening of transverse joint because of strong earthquake action is unfavorable to the safety of sealing and dam body. Whether the transverse joint reinforcement is adopted or not is an urgent subject to be solved in theory for the designer. For this reason, the non linear analysis model of dam with transverse joint reinforcement is applied to the analysis of earthquake response of the Xiaowan Arch dam with transverse joint reinforcement. The calculation results showed the transverse joint reinforcement can obviously control the opening of the transverse joints of arch dam, increase the integrity of arch dam and reduce the worsening of beam stresses caused by the opening of transverse joint to a certain degree. It is necessary to arrange proper vertical steel bars in order to avoid the cracks along beam direction.