Dam‐break Flows in Curved Channel

Abstract

Experimental data on dam break flows obtained on a test facility are presented in this paper. The test facility comprises a 3.65 m by 2.3 m upstream reservoir and a 0.3 by 0.3 m rectangular downstream channel. This channel has two straight segments that are connected by a 180° bend. Capacitance probes are used to record water levels in the upstream reservoir. A new procedure using electronic digitization of video images is used to record water levels in the downstream channel. This procedure does not disturb flow and gives accurate results. Comparison of the unsteady water levels computed by using the Lax scheme with the measured water levels is satisfactory. The conservation form of the St. Venant equations predicts the height and celerity of the wave better than the nonconservation form. An approximate procedure is presented to compute the lateral gradient of water surface in a curved channel. Comparison with the measured results shows satisfactory agreement.