| Abstract: | For a reservoir with an arbitrary shape of the upstream dam face and of the bottom including an adjacent regular part of constant depth extending to infinity, the hydrodynamic-stiffness matrix in the frequency domain for a displacement formulation is derived using the boundary-element method. The fundamental solution takes the boundary condition at the free surface into account. The analytical solution of the semi-infinite reservoir is used to improve the accuracy. To be able to transform the hydrodynamic-stiffness matrix from the frequency to the time domain, the singular part consisting of its asymptotic value of ω ∞ is split off. It consists of an imaginary linear term in ω which can be interpreted as a damper with a coefficient per unit area equal to the product of the mass density and the wave velocity. This also applies for a reservoir bottom of arbitrary shape. The remaining regular part of the stiffness matrix is transformed numerically. The corresponding interaction force-displacement relationship involves convolution integrals. This boundary-element solution agrees well with analytical results and with those of other numerical procedures based on a time-stepping method. The method is also applied to an actual earthquake acting on a reservoir with an irregular part with an inclined bottom and a regular part extending to infinity. The results of the analysis in the time domain coincide with those determined in the frequency domain. |
