An interesting and informative paper by Mr. Bruno Neves of Brazil on HEC-RAS dam breach modeling and determining the self rescue zone, as well as the timing for alerting residents of the self-rescue zone. The concept is tested using HEC-RAS with hypothetical 2D breach scenarios of the Santa Branca Dam in the Paraíba do Sul […]
HEC recently published a new training document called “Using HEC-RAS for Dam Break Studies”. Written by Gary Brunner, P.E., D.WRE, it is an easy to follow guide for performing Dam Break simulations in HEC-RAS. It covers topics like: Which routing technique to use to route flows through your reservoir (Dynamic or Level Pool-although I wish […]
Just ran into an interesting phenomenon. I was running a dam breach model with fairly typical breach parameters and piping failure mode. After the peak of the breach hydrograph, there appeared a mysterious “spike” as shown in the figure below. This happens to be right at the same time the flow through the developing breach […]
I was recently asked my opinion on a good way to model the following dam breach event: “I …recently completed three consulting projects where I simulated the breach of three proposed coal slurry impoundments. The permitting agency required a RAS model of an “instantaneous” hypothetical breach (over full depth, almost 80 ft for one of […]
Written by Chris Goodell, P.E., D. WRE | WEST ConsultantsCopyright © RASModel.com. 2010. All rights reserved.I would appreciate any feedback from you all on this topic. It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while now. My biggest concern with the current practice of dam breach modeling is the overwhelming uncertainty associated with dam breach […]