What loads could you add?
You can really add any kind of load you want. Some examples of commong loadings on a dam might be: the force of the water on the upstream side of the dam; the self-weight of the dam (how much the dam weights); or the force of the ground on the dam (maybe during an earthquake).
The gravity dam below is loaded with two types of loads
(the little yellow squares):
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1. a water load on the left edge of the dam, a positive force in
the X-direction Is there a better way to model the hydrostatic (water) load? |  | 2. a self-weight load on the right edge of the dam, a negative force in the Y-direction |  |
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Can you calculate the self-weight of your structure? Recall:
density=mass/volume weight=mass*gravity Take density=1 and depth=1. Even though the dam feels its own weight everywhere on itself, often it is modelled as a single load. This load is usually placed at the centroid. Can you find the centroid of your structure? |