Comparison of shear-beam and dynamic finite-element modal analysis of earth dams

This paper compares two well-established but different methods for frequency-domain analysis of earth dams. The first method is shear beam approach which is an analytical technique for estimating the natural modes and frequencies of vibration of earth dams. The second method is the dynamic finite-element modal analysis approach which is a numerical technique that can predict the actual dynamic response of earth dams. Although both methods attempt to predict the same physical mechanism, they usually yield completely different results. This paper aims at quantifying the “error” from shear-beam analysis, as compared to the more accurate finite-element analysis.