Abstract: The anti-seismic performance of a rock-fill dam is not only determined by its geometry and composition,but also by the intensity of an earthquake to which the dam is subjected.Through critical state sand model cooperating with the concept of state-dependent dilatancy,a group of fully coupled finite element analyses of the response of a central core rock-fill Dam are presented for the study of the seismic performance.The numerical analysis is on the SUMDES2D platform.The dam was built directly on bedrock to earthquakes of different intensities.The dynamic response of the dam under earthquake intensity was analyzed.The calculation results show that,the bigger the earthquake intensity is,the larger the permanent deformation and local deformation would occur in the dam.The analysis provides not only the overall displacement and deformation of the dam,but also the stress path and stress-strain relationship of local soil unit.The inner destructive mechanism of the dam under different seismic intensities is also further discussed.The dynamic response of local soil unit illustrates whether the critical state of the dam is reached based on the site of the unit and its stress state.The soil units near the berm of upstream slope gradually achieve their critical state of the material as the earthquake intensity increases,and have a flow deformation.