AMBIENT VIBRATION TESTS USED TO EVALUATE SEISMIC PROPERTIES OF A MEXICAN CONCRETE DAM

摘要

New ways of constructing structures are found every day, but also ways in which they are analyzed or modeled, to obtain an ideal behavior or nearer to the reality in case of an external excitement produced either by natural, or accidental phenomena, being earthquakes one of the most important to take into account. For the study of the behavior of a massive structure, like a dam, there have been adopted ambient vibration tests as a good method of study; It is a trustworthy, economical, suitable method that provides good information on seismic response. It is also an efficient method to review or adjust the mathematical model of the structure. This work reports the preliminary results of the study of Ensenada's dam: "Emilio López Zamora", located, at Northwest of Mexico, It is in a high risk earthquake zone, so a seismic response study is needed. For this purpose, ambient vibration as source of excitement and several arrays of sensors have been used and processing and interpretation of data used to obtain results about structure and soil.