Dr. Blackler (AEAS) and Dr. Williams (DTW and Associates) collaborated on a project where a railroad embankment failed and flooded numerous houses. The project included forensic analysis of the breach, hydraulic modeling, and comparison of high water marks for forensic calibration. 2 Dimensional and 3 Dimensional Computational Hydraulics were used to model flood depths, energy, and momentum on structures.
Using a hydraulic flume can help illustrate complex relationships in hydraulics. Even simple relationships like channel roughness and how it effects hydraulic depths and velocities are best shown in a hydraulic flume.
Image of a drop structure needed to divert water into an augmentation line. Each boulder was modeled using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to capture the hydraulic jump, forces on each rock, and to assess the viability of the diversion structure’s hydraulic performance.
We can use a variety of models to estimate velocities down drop structures, dams, spillways, or within open channel systems.
Advanced Engineering and Academic Sciences (AEAS) 