Experimental Investigation of Pressure Load Exerted on a Downstream Dam by Dam-Break Flow

Abstract

The failure of a natural or an artificial dam often leads to catastrophic flooding downstream. Studies have been conducted to investigate the mechanisms of single dam failure and the propagation of dam-break flood wave. However, little attention has been paid to the cascade failure of two or more sequential dams. In this article, consequences of a dam-break flood wave down a channel exerting pressure load on a downstream dam with different backwater effects were studied experimentally. Three typical flood patterns were observed for different downstream reservoir water depths. High precision pressure sensors were employed to measure the pressure load at different heights on the dam. Changes of the maximum pressure load were measured as the bed slope and the upstream and downstream reservoir water depths varied. An empirical formula was obtained by linear regression to predict the maximum pressure load. Additionally, a sinusoidal attenuation function was introduced to describe the time evolution of pressure load exerted on the downstream dam, and its parameters were determined using the measurement data in different cases.