Dam breach (Froehlich) 1

[SMIAH]

Anyone here use The Froehlich (1995b) procedure for estimating peak breach flow rates ?

I just calculated it and then used the parameters in FLDWAV to see if the peak flow rate will be similar. Well no it is not.

Then I saw that Froehlich assumes that the reservoir is full when the breach is fully developped. Higher pool levels at the time of failure lead to higher breach flows (this is confirmed by checking the WSEL when Qpeak in FLDWAV).

The use of breach parameters estimated from Froehlich as inputs to FLDWAV then results in a significant overestimation of peak breach flow.

Anyone's has another way to estimate peak breach flow rates without using FLDWAV?

 

[Drew08]

If you can find a copy of the NWS DAMBRK user documentation (or maybe also in the BOSS DAMBRK documentation) by Fread, Fread included two equations for checking the peak breach discharge.(Equations 6 and 7 in that document).

D.L. Fread (1988), The NWS DAMBRK Model: Theoretical Background/ User Documentation.

The NRCS TR-60, Earth Dams and Reservoirs, has another method.

Both HEC-HMS and HEC-RAS have a computational method for determining the breach hydrograph. From the breach hydrograph, you can find the peak breach discharge.

I've never used the Froehlich method, so I don't know how it might differ from any of the above.

 

[DamEng1]

Check out the link below. This is a paper done by Tony Wahl with USBR in 1998 that details several of the embankment dam breach equations.

http://www.mde.state.md.us/programs/Water/DamSafety/TechnicalReferences/Documents/

http://www.mde.state.md.us/assets/d...mbankment Dam Breach Parameters USBR 1998.pdf