A concrete gravity dam is a submerged structure with complicated geometry and complex behaviour under seismic excitation. Predicting the performance of a concrete dam during an earthquake is one of the most challenging and complex problems due to the effects of coupled dam-reservoir-foundation interaction. Substantial progress has been made in the numerical modelling of a dam with several assumptions for infinite reservoir and soil, boundary conditions, three-dimensional effects, etc. As a result, such theoretical algorithms need to be validated through experimental observations. Due to the complex nature of the dam-foundation-reservoir system, and its huge size, several experimental works have so far been pursued. This paper aims to provide systematic development of these experimental works in a laboratory, stating the advantages and disadvantages, in order to enable researchers to adopt the right technique.
