Author
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Temple, Darrel |
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Hanson, Gregory |
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Submitted to: State Dam Safety Officials Association Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings Publication Acceptance Date: 10/16/1998 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: Aging of the nation's water resource management infrastructure and increasing flood plain development have generated a need for better ways to evaluate the performance of embankments that may be overtopped during major floods. Research has been initiated to develop the technology needed to perform these evaluations. This research includes testing of vegetated earth embankments in an outdoor laboratory. Preliminary results from these tests suggest that existing technology may be extended, through research, to make it applicable for evaluation of the performance of overtopped embankments. Technical Abstract: A large number of aging earth flood control reservoirs have spillways that are not adequate to pass the probable maximum flood or the percentage thereof that is required by current design criteria. Many of these structures are located in areas that make them capable of supporting a good quality grass cover on the downstream face. Experience suggests that these structures could withstand some overtopping without breach. For low hazard structures located in rural areas, optimizing this ability to withstand overtopping may be a suitable alternative to upgrading the auxiliary spillway. In an effort to quantify the resistance of these grass-covered embankments to breach, the Agricultural Research Service performed large- scale tests on a grass-covered embankment in the outdoor laboratory at Stillwater, Oklahoma. Preliminary results of these tests suggest that the procedure used for evaluating the time to vegetal cover failure in grass- lined earth spillways can reasonably be applied to predicting allowable overtopping of grassed embankments. Those preliminary results and their potential application to field structures are discussed. |
