Author(s): Rosi Liem; Jurgen Kongeter
Linked Author(s): Jürgen Köngeter
Keywords: Flood Wave Propagation; Unsteady Flow; Physical Model
Abstract: The sudden break of a dam or other hydraulic constructions which ought to protect dry regions from flooding initializes the propagation of an unsteady flood wave. Several former investigations have been conducted assuming that the discharge into the emptying reservoir equals zero and therefore water levels within the reservoir will decrease immediately. At the Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources Management (IWW) at Aachen University of Technology experimental investigations on dambreak waves have been carried out considering stable water levels in the reservoir and also regarding different discharges into the reservoir. These three dimensional investigations were required to predict the propagation of a flood wave caused by a failure of flood protection walls along rivers in Germany. Thus the river functions as the reservoir in a dambreak problem. The obtained data indicated constant propagation velocities not influenced by the amount of discharge within the river but a significant increase in water levels within the flood wave as the discharge is raised. The construction of the model, the conducted experiments as well as results obtained from water level analysis are presented in this paper.
Year: 1999