Reliability and Robustness Evaluation of a Remotely Operated Siphon System for Flood Mitigation during Hurricanes

Flood is one of the most disastrous natural calamities which results in loss of human lives coupled with significant economic and infrastructural losses. Climate change and anthropogenic activities result in increased flood frequency and magnitude. This paper discusses an exclusive way of flood mitigation by utilizing and integrating structural and nonstructural approaches. Effective usage of storage systems (wetlands, detention ponds, and reservoirs) by operating in a coordinated manner plays a vital role for the same objective. For this purpose, a low-cost, green, and smart system have been designed by integrating hardware and software components. A framework has been developed to control siphon, gates, pumps, water level sensors, and air-vents, and perform a remote operation using a 3G/4G cellular connection. A prototype has been designed and tested multiple times in the field. To check the reliability and robustness of the system, structural analysis has been performed using a finite element software by applying suitable wind load. This load includes hurricane-force winds as the primary purpose of this system is to mitigate floods due to extreme rainfall and storm surge caused by hurricanes. The structural response of the siphon system against these high-intensity winds is also analyzed, laying the groundwork for future wind structure interaction analysis.