Model for Predicting Floods due to Earthen Dam Breaching. I: Formulation and Evaluation
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Volume 134, Issue 12
Abstract
This paper proposes a dam-breach model which predicts, in a simple but physically based manner, not only the peak discharge but the whole outflow hydrograph and breach development. The following aspects are taken into account: the geometry of the embankment, the shape of the reservoir, the hydraulic characteristics of the flow through the breach and its erosive capacity, and the shape of the breach. The model needs only one calibration parameter and can be easily applied to real cases. The application of the model with a single value of the calibration parameter produced excellent results in the simulation of 12 historic earthfill dam failures, with a discharge range covering three orders of magnitude.
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Acknowledgments
This paper is dedicated to Professor Giuseppe Frega, in the year of his 70th birthday. The writer is grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable observations which led to a greater in-depth analysis of a number of aspects dealt with herein. Thanks also go to Gianluca De Lorenzo and Antonella Rino for their notable contribution to the numerical calculation and layout of the figures.
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Information
Published In
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 134 • Issue 12 • December 2008
Pages: 1688 - 1696
Copyright
© 2008 ASCE.
History
Received: Jun 17, 2004
Accepted: May 19, 2008
Published online: Dec 1, 2008
Published in print: Dec 2008
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