Experimental and Numerical Investigation of the Flood Waves due to Partial Dam Break

The potential destruction of dams is a serious danger for the settlements. Dam break events cause serious loss of life and property in the region, regardless of the reason. The time required to give warn the people of the region is very short since floods develop suddenly during dam breaks. For this reason, the investigation of the flood wave propagation that will occur at the time of possible collapse is important for the emergency action plans to be prepared. In this study, the dam break experiments were carried out in the distorted physical model of the Urkmez Dam and at its downstream part also involving the vegetation. The horizontal and vertical scales are 1/150 and 1/30, respectively. The water depths and local velocities were measured by means of elaborated devices, and the propagation of the flood wave was recorded by high-precision cameras. In addition, numerical analysis was achieved by using the FLOW-3D program. According to the results, it is concluded that as the water level decreases, the time to reach the measurement points of the flood increases and the spatial distribution is delayed. The computed values obtained from the numerical model simulated by using the dam reservoir are in better agreement with those obtained from experiments than those calculated by using the outlet hydrograph.