Experimental Investigation of Loading due to Debris Dams on Structures
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 146, Issue 5
Abstract
The entrainment of debris in tsunami-induced floods and storm surges can result in their accumulation on structures, a phenomenon known as debris damming. Such dams can decrease the stability of the affected structures by increasing the area of the flow obstruction, resulting in increased resistance forces. The formation of debris dams can also result in upstream water level rise. This study investigated the influence of idealized debris dam geometry on induced loads and changes in the free surface surrounding a circular column in steady-state flow conditions. Additionally, it investigated the resistance force coefficient of the debris dams. Results show that the presence of debris dams results in a significant increase of loading on structures. The increase in the resistance force was up to 7.7 times greater than the resistance force acting on the column with no debris present. The resistance force coefficients and the change in water depth were functions of the relative dam height and the Froude number, while the porosity had an insignificant impact on the effective resistance force coefficients.
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Data Availability Statement
All data recorded throughout this study, including recorded water depths, velocities, and forces, are available from the corresponding author by request. In addition, the codes used to process and analyze the data are available by request from the corresponding author.
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge financial support for this study provided through the Ontario Graduate Scholarship (Gabriella Mauti), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) CGS-D Scholarship (Jacob Stolle), and the NSERC Discovery Grant (Ioan Nistor and Majid Mohammadian). The authors also thank the University of Ottawa technical staff, Mark Lapointe and Leo Denner, for their laboratory assistance throughout the project. A part of the present work was performed as a part of the activities of the Research Institute of Sustainable Future Society, Waseda Research Institute for Science and Engineering, Waseda University.
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Published In
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 146 • Issue 5 • May 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 14, 2019
Accepted: Oct 4, 2019
Published online: Feb 27, 2020
Published in print: May 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Jul 27, 2020
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