Experimental Investigations of Dam Break Flows down an Inclined Channel.

• Presented at: 34th IAHR World Congress, Bribane, Australia, May 26-July 1
• Published in: Proceedings of the 34th IAHR World Congress, vol. CDrom
• Australia: Engineers Australia, July, 2011

Dam break floods on steep slopes occur in diverse settings and can encompass natural events such as mudflows and avalanches as well as the failure of manmade dams. Laboratory experiments were undertaken to investigate the dam break flows of pure water down a variably sloping, rectangular fixed bed channel. A high-speed digital camera was used to track the flow. The images were processed to compute the front wave position and velocity, the maximum water height, the passing wave depth and the wave profile. The effects of varying the controlled parameters (i.e., the bed roughness and its inclination angle, the volume of water in the reservoir) were explored.

Keywords: dam break flows ; steep slopes ; front velocity ; image processing ; high speed camera

Reference

• EPFL-CONF-174579

Record created on 2012-01-31, modified on 2016-08-09