Direct Estimate of the Breach Hydrograph of an Overtopped Earth Dam
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 143, Issue 6
Abstract
The quantification of the breach hydrograph of an overtopped earth dam remains a challenge, even in controlled laboratory conditions. In this work, the breach hydrograph is calculated as the product of the velocity normal to a breach cross section and the estimated area of that cross section. Although theoretically simple, because it is based on the very definition of discharge, this direct approach is an absolute novelty in dam-breach studies. To illustrate the application of the method, a laboratory model of an earth dam, built with cohesive sediments, was closely monitored. Competent velocities were estimated from surface velocity maps measured with large-scale particle image velocimetry (LSPIV). The breach area was estimated by analyzing images of the traces of a laser sheet on the free surface and the breach bottom. The direct breach hydrograph was compared with an estimate based on the mass balance in the reservoir and with the discharge obtained through a rating curve of a downstream spillway. The novel method was shown to reproduce the main expected features of the breach hydrograph. The potential to provide estimates free from experimental artifacts caused by improper description of inertial effects is underlined. The advantages and the difficulties inherent to the method are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the team of the Laboratory of Construction and Modeling, the Geotechnical Department, and the Centre of Scientific Instrumentation of the National Laboratory of Civil Engineering for the technical assistance in all the experimental work. This work was partially funded by Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER), program Programa Operacional de Fatores de Competitividade (COMPETE), and by national funds through Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) (RECI/ECM-HID/0371/2012). The second author thanks FCT for financial support through a Ph.D. scholarship (SFRH/BD/47694/2008). The work was started in the scope of PIRE Project NSF 0730246, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.
References
Adrian, R. J. (1991). “Particle-imaging techniques for experimental fluid mechanics.” Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech., 23(1), 261–304.
Amaral, S. (2014). “Failure by overtopping of earth dams. Quantification of the discharge hydrograph.” Proc., 3rd IAHR Europe Congress, Porto, Portugal, 14–16.
Bastiaans, R. (2000). Cross-correlation PIV: Theory, implementation and accuracy, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Eindhoven Univ. of Technology, Eindhoven, Netherlands.
Bento, A. M. (2013). “Characterization of dam breaching following overtopping.” M.S. thesis, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.
Chanson, H. (2004). “Discussion of ‘Overtopping breaching of noncohesive homogeneous embankments’ by Stephen E. Coleman, Darryl P. Andrews, and M. Grant Webby.” J. Hydraul. Eng., 371–374.
Chinnarasri, C., Tingsanchali, T., Weesakul, S., and Wongwises, S. (2003). “Flow patterns and damage of dike overtopping.” Int. J. Sediment Res., 18(4), 301–309.
Coleman, S. E., Andrews, D. P., and Webby, M. G. (2002). “Overtopping breaching of noncohesive homogeneous embankments.” J. Hydraul. Eng., 829–838.
Costa, J. E., et al. (2006). “Use of radars to monitor stream discharge by noncontact methods.” Water Resour. Res., 42(7).
Feliciano Cestero, J. A., Imran, J., and Chaudhry, M. H. (2015). “Experimental investigation of the effects of soil properties on levee breach by overtopping.” J. Hydraul. Eng., .
Foster, M., Fell, R., and Spannagle, M. (2000). “The statistics of embankment dam failures and accidents.” Can. Geotech. J., 37(5), 1000–1024.
Fujita, I., Muste, M., and Kruger, A. (1998). “Large-scale particle image velocimetry for flow analysis in hydraulic engineering applications.” J. Hydraul. Res., 36(3), 397–414.
Hahn, W., Hanson, G. J., and Cook, K. R. (2000). “Breach morphology observations of embankment overtopping tests.” Building partnerships, ASCE, Reston, VA.
Hanson, G., Cook, K., and Hunt, S. (2005). “Physical modeling of overtopping erosion and breach formation of cohesive embankments.” Trans. ASAE, 48(5), 1783–1794.
Harpold, A. A., Mostaghimi, S., Vlachos, P. P., Brannan, K., and Dillaha, T. (2006). “Stream discharge measurement using a large-scale particle image velocimetry (LSPIV) prototype.” Trans. ASABE, 49(6), 1791–1805.
Hart, D. P. (2000). “PIV error correction.” Experiments in fluids, 29(1), 13–22.
Jónatas, R. (2013). “Rotura de barragens de aterro por galgamento. ensaios experimentais com aterros ho mogéneos.” M.S. thesis, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.
Keane, R., and Adrian, R. (1992). “Theory of cross-correlation analysis of PIV images.” Appl. Sci. Res., 49(3), 191–215.
Leal, J., Silva, P., and Ferreira, R. (2006). “Dam-break propagation over a movable bed in a non-prismatic channel.” River Flow 2006, Taylor & Francis, Abingdon, U.K.
LNEC. (1966). “Especificação.” E 196-1966, Solos - Análise granulométrica.
Morris, M., Hassan, M., and Vaskinn, K. (2007). “Breach formation: Field test and laboratory experiments.” J. Hydraul. Res., 45, 9–17.
Muste, M., Kim, W., and Fulford, J. M. (2008). “Developments in hydrometric technology: New and emerging instruments for mapping river hydrodynamics.” Bull.–J. World Meteorol. Organiz., 57(3), 163.
Orendorff, B., Rennie, C. D., and Nistor, I. (2011). “Using PTV through an embankment breach channel.” J. Hydro-environ. Res., 5(4), 277–287.
Pickert, G., Weitbrecht, V., and Bieberstein, A. (2011). “Breaching of overtopped river embankments controlled by apparent cohesion.” J. Hydraul. Res., 49(2), 143–156.
Powledge, G. R., Ralston, D. C., Miller, P., Chen, Y. H., Clopper, P. E., and Temple, D. (1989). “Mechanics of overflow erosion on embankments. II: Hydraulic and design considerations.” J. Hydraul. Eng., 1056–1075.
Pust, O. (2000). “PIV: Direct cross-correlation compared with FFT-based cross-correlation.” Proc., 10th Int. Symp. on Applications of Laser Techniques to Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 27, Lisbon, Portugal, 114.
Raffel, M., Willert, C., and Kompenhans, J. (2007). Particle image velocimetry: A practical guide, Springer, New York.
Reyes-Coronado, A., García-Valenzuela, A., Sánchez-Pérez, C., and Barrera, R. G. (2005). “Measurement of the effective refractive index of a turbid colloidal suspension using light refraction.” New J. Phys., 7, 89.
Schmocker, L., and Hager, W. H. (2009). “Modelling dike breaching due to overtopping.” J. Hydraul. Res., 47(5), 585–597.
Schmocker, L., and Hager, W. H. (2012). “Plane dike-breach due to overtopping: Effects of sediment, dike height and discharge.” J. Hydraul. Res., 50(6), 576–586.
Singh, V. P. (1996). Dam breach modeling technology, Springer, Dordrecht, Netherlands.
Soares-Frazão, S., et al. (2012). “Dam-break flows over mobile beds: experiments and benchmark tests for numerical models.” J. Hydraul. Res., 50(4), 364–375.
Soares-Frazão, S., Le Grelle, N., Spinewine, B., and Zech, Y. (2007). “Dam-break induced morphological changes in a channel with uniform sediments: Measurements by a laser-sheet imaging technique.” J. Hydraul. Res., 45, 87–95.
Tauro, F., Olivieri, G., Petroselli, A., Porfiri, M., and Grimaldi, S. (2014). “Technical note: Surface water velocity observations from a camera: A case study on the Tiber River.” Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., 11(10), 11883–11904.
Thielicke, W., and Stamhuis, E. J. (2014). “PIVlab—Towards user-friendly, affordable and accurate digital particle image velocimetry in MATLAB.” J. Open Res. Software, 45, 87–95.
Van Emelen, S., Zech, Y., and Soares-Frazão, S. (2014). “Impact of sediment transport formulations on breaching modelling.” J. Hydraul. Res., 53(1), 60–72.
Visser, P. (1998). Breach growth in sand-dike, Hydraulic and Geotechnical Engineering Div., Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft Univ. of Technology, Delft, Netherlands.
Wahl, T. L. (2004). “Uncertainty of predictions of embankment dam breach parameters.” J. Hydraul. Eng., 389–397.
Westerweel, J. (1993). Digital particle image velocimetry: Theory and application, Delft University Press, Delft, Netherlands.
Yochum, S. E., Goertz, L. A., and Jones, P. H. (2008). “Case study of the Big Bay Dam failure: Accuracy and comparison of breach predictions.” J. Hydraul. Eng., 1285–1293.
Yorke, T. H., and Oberg, K. A. (2002). “Measuring river velocity and discharge with acoustic doppler profilers.” Flow Meas. Instrum., 13(5–6), 191–195.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 18, 2015
Accepted: Oct 17, 2016
Published online: Feb 7, 2017
Published in print: Jun 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Jul 7, 2017
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.