1923 Gleno Dam Break: Case Study and Numerical Modeling
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 137, Issue 4
Abstract
On the morning of December 1, 1923, the Gleno Dam (located in the Central Italian Alps) suddenly collapsed a few days after the first complete reservoir filling. Nearly of water was released. The consequent inundation caused significant destruction along the downstream valley and a death toll of at least 356 lives. This failure is the only historical case of dam break caused by structural deficiencies that has occurred in Italy. As a result, it has deeply influenced the evolution of Italian regulations regarding dam design and hydraulic risk evaluation. However, in spite of its relevance, this event has never been characterized from a hydraulic standpoint. This paper reports the main information obtained from the analysis of a vast amount of historical documents regarding the Gleno Dam break to set up a case study useful for validating dam-break models in mountain settings. Moreover, it presents the main results of one-dimensional (1D) modeling of the dam break wave propagation accomplished with a first-order finite volume numerical scheme recently proposed in the literature for field applications. The overall effectiveness and reliability of the model are evaluated for this case characterized by very irregular topography. Finally, the practical relevance of several choices that the numerical reconstruction of this kind of event demands is tested.
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Acknowledgments
We greatly appreciated the helpful cooperation of Eng. Simone Bonetti and all the people and agencies that allowed the collection of the documentary information. We sincerely thank the photographer’s studio Foto Giorgio (http://www.scalve.it/) that provided many of the historical pictures used in this work. Finally, we would like to thank the reviewers and the editor, whose valuable suggestions contributed to improve the quality of this paper.
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Information
Published In
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 137 • Issue 4 • April 2011
Pages: 480 - 492
Copyright
© 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 2, 2009
Accepted: Sep 3, 2010
Published online: Sep 7, 2010
Published in print: Apr 1, 2011
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