Recently, many analyses of dam safety against earthquake are carried out. In many case, earthquake records used by response analysis has been measured not on bottom of its foundation layer, but on dam base or on its surface. In such case, the mechanical effect of foundation to dam response becomes obscure. In the paper, the author discussed various earthquake response characteristics of foundation and dam from their interaction standpoint.
Evaluation of dam safety for earthquake is important because of recent experiences of tremendous earthquakes. In this paper, the theory of modal analysis is refined through the new interpretation, and the modified seismic coefficients are proposed in the seismic design of concrete gravity dams.