Reference number : GC-2017-Q1-03536, amendment number : , agreement type : G, recipient legal name : Bouaanani, Najib (École Polytechnique de Montréal), recipient country : CA, recipient province : nan, recipient city : Quebec|Québec, recipient postal code : nan, program name english : Discovery Grants Program - Individual, program name french : Programme de subventions à la découverte - individuelles, program purpose english : Dam failures may lead to catastrophic consequences, extending far beyond the immediate neighbourhood of dam sites due to reservoir release or overtopping. Many dams in Canada and worldwide have been in service for over 50 years, and their initial outdated design generally fails to meet modern safety criteria. Loss of lives and widespread destruction of homes and businesses due to recent floods worldwide are another clear illustration of the urgent need for comprehensive identification of the tremendous risks posed by aging dam infrastructure. In a context of budgetary restrictions, such identification of most vulnerable dams is required to prioritise their retrofit. This is even more urgent as aging dam infrastructure must resist increased critical loads due mainly to: (i) updated seismic hazard accounting for continuously improved understanding of earthquakes, and (ii) more frequent flooding events induced by changing climate patterns and landscape. In this context, dam owners, whether government, municipalities, or private sector, are faced with managing risks within cost constraints before triggering retrofit interventions, based primarily on field inspections and findings from safety evaluation reviews. Retrofit decisions must be well grounded at the risk of focusing on dams not presenting major imminent threats and delaying rehabilitation of others that must be prioritized. The long-term objective of this proposal is to provide engineers, researchers, and ultimately decision makers, with experimentally-validated simulations and experimental techniques for effective and efficient assessment of the earthquake safety and vulnerability of critical dam infrastructure. This research proposal addresses two main themes: (i) developing original 3D simulation models for safety assessment of critical dam infrastructure, and (ii) performing novel experimental tests to address critical dam safety issues. The proposed methodology is highly original and will significantly enhance the practice of safety assessment of dams and appurtenant structures subjected to earthquake loads. The developed 3D numerical models and their experimental validations using accessible data and structures from actual dam sites and available large scale testing equipment is a unique research endeavour that will lead to ground-breaking advances in dam engineering. The developed techniques and findings will have a significant socio-economic impact by reducing the risks of loss of life and property damage associated with dam incidents. Throughout all research phases, guidelines and case studies of actual dams and appurtenant structures will be provided to be advantageously used by dam engineers., program purpose french : Dam failures may lead to catastrophic consequences, extending far beyond the immediate neighbourhood of dam sites due to reservoir release or overtopping. Many dams in Canada and worldwide have been in service for over 50 years, and their initial outdated design generally fails to meet modern safety criteria. Loss of lives and widespread destruction of homes and businesses due to recent floods worldwide are another clear illustration of the urgent need for comprehensive identification of the tremendous risks posed by aging dam infrastructure. In a context of budgetary restrictions, such identification of most vulnerable dams is required to prioritise their retrofit. This is even more urgent as aging dam infrastructure must resist increased critical loads due mainly to: (i) updated seismic hazard accounting for continuously improved understanding of earthquakes, and (ii) more frequent flooding events induced by changing climate patterns and landscape. In this context, dam owners, whether government, municipalities, or private sector, are faced with managing risks within cost constraints before triggering retrofit interventions, based primarily on field inspections and findings from safety evaluation reviews. Retrofit decisions must be well grounded at the risk of focusing on dams not presenting major imminent threats and delaying rehabilitation of others that must be prioritized. The long-term objective of this proposal is to provide engineers, researchers, and ultimately decision makers, with experimentally-validated simulations and experimental techniques for effective and efficient assessment of the earthquake safety and vulnerability of critical dam infrastructure. This research proposal addresses two main themes: (i) developing original 3D simulation models for safety assessment of critical dam infrastructure, and (ii) performing novel experimental tests to address critical dam safety issues. The proposed methodology is highly original and will significantly enhance the practice of safety assessment of dams and appurtenant structures subjected to earthquake loads. The developed 3D numerical models and their experimental validations using accessible data and structures from actual dam sites and available large scale testing equipment is a unique research endeavour that will lead to ground-breaking advances in dam engineering. The developed techniques and findings will have a significant socio-economic impact by reducing the risks of loss of life and property damage associated with dam incidents. Throughout all research phases, guidelines and case studies of actual dams and appurtenant structures will be provided to be advantageously used by dam engineers., agreement title english : Novel experimental and numerical techniques for efficient earthquake safety assessment of critical dam infrastructure, agreement title french : Novel experimental and numerical techniques for efficient earthquake safety assessment of critical dam infrastructure, agreement number : RGPIN, agreement value : 255000.0, agreement start date : 2017-05-10, agreement end date : nan, description english : nan, description french : nan, expected results english : nan, expected results french : nan, additional information english : Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year. (2017-2018 to 2022-2023), additional information french : Subvention ou bourse octroyée s'appliquant à plus d'un exercice financier. (2017-2018 à 2022-2023), owner organization : nserc-crsng, owner organization title : Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada | Conseil de recherches en sciences naturelles et en génie du Canada