Concept

St. Francis Dam

Related publications (17)

Grounding imperialism: Zschokke and the construction of the El Kansera Dam in Morocco from 1927-1934

What can a colonial dam’s foundations reveal about imperial practices and hidden social impacts in architecture history? The El Kansera Dam in Morocco (1927-1934), built by the Omnium d’Entreprises and Swiss contractor Zschokke French subsidiary Entreprise des grands travaux hydrauliques de France, serves as a paradigmatic case study. Through the French subsidiary of the Swiss contractor Zchokke, this deep involvement in the French colonial apparatus demonstrates yet another imperial entanglement through th

2026

When, and for how long, two tough layers can contain the propagation of a fracture driven by the injection of a viscous fluid

Hydraulic fracturing (HF) is a technology that consists of growing a tensile (mode I) fracture via the injection of a viscous fluid from a wellbore. It is mainly used to enhance the production of geological reservoirs of fluids but also to measure the in-situ stress field. The vertical growth of HF outside the formation of interest is a critical criterion determining the feasibility of the technique [1]. In sedimentary basins, HFs are typically observed to be contained at depth and to propagate horizontally

2022

Fracture toughness of sandstone under dry, saturated and immerged conditions

Water-induced strength reduction is one of the most critical causes of rock engineering disasters. Understanding the influence of water on the fracture toughness of rocks is necessary for rock fracture mechanics and rock engineering applications such as mining, tunneling, and the exploitation of deep geothermal reservoirs. However, only a few studies have been conducted to understand the effect of water on fracture properties such as fracture toughness. In this thesis, the effect of water on fracture toughn

2020

Heightening of very high gravity dams: the case study of the Grande Dixence

Giovanni De Cesare, Pedro Filipe De Almeida Manso

Dam heightening can provide large incremental positive impacts on storage with minimum incremental negative impacts, but requires deep knowledge of the structure and its foundation. Very high gravity dams are usually well studied and documented due to their importance and complexity. Such profound knowledge of the dam-reservoir-foundation system considerably reduces the uncertainty about site conditions already at an early stage of design. Furthermore, the availability of monitoring data and safety assessme

2019

Computational modelling of fine sediment release using SEDMIX device with thrusters

Giovanni De Cesare

Problem: Reservoir sedimentation occurs in dams worldwide, reducing the live storage available in the reservoirs. Possible solution: Jenzer-Althaus 2011) testes a water stirring device (called SEDMIX) that keeps sediments in suspension, enhancing its release through the power intakes of the dam reporting a high efficiency. Background studies: Numerical simulations for a prototype for the Trift reservoir have been carried out in the past by Amini et al. (2017) and Chraïbi et al. (2018), obrtaining good resul

2019

Influence of building orientation on the hydrodynamic impact of water waves on buildings with openings

Tsunamis, dam-break waves and impulse waves are catastrophic phenomena that leave thousands of victims and cause severe infrastructural damage. Understanding the impact that these waves have on structures is therefore necessary to properly dimension buildings in wave hazard zones. Previous studies have analyzed the impact of waves on structures, and the effects of building orientation and porosity have been separately investigated, however both factors have not been considered simultaneously. In addition ma

2018

New hydraulic gallery to improve operation conditions at the Emosson hydro scheme

A new hydraulic gallery was constructed to increase operational resilience and mitigate risks of Emosson hydropower scheme in the Swiss-French Alps. One of the main constraints of the operation is to avoid the overflow of the so called "Corbes" surge chimney during pumping, if the upstream valve is closed. While this scenario is very rare and happened only three times since the commissioning of the dam in 1973, it is considered as a critical issue for operation of the scheme due to the high risk of this eve

2016

Basal entrainment by Newtonian gravity-driven flows

Gravity-driven flows can erode the bed along which they descend and increase their mass by a factor of 10 or more. This process is called basal entrainment. Although documented by field observations and laboratory experiments, it remains poorly understood. We look into this issue by studying eroding dam-break waves. More specifically we would like to determine what happens when a viscous gravity-driven flow generated by releasing a fixed volume of incompressible Newtonian fluid encounters a stationary erodi

2016

A model for entrainment in avalanches and debris flows based on PIV measurements of viscous gravity currents.

A simple experiment, designed to investigate entrainment in geophysical free-surface flows such as avalanches and debris flows, was performed using a dam break of viscous fluid which travels over a rigid bed until meeting a shallow layer of the same fluid at rest; this represents an avalanche which begins entraining material along its path. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) on a streamwise section in the entrainment zone allowed the measurement of internal flow velocities and the observation of entrainment p

2014

Physical and numerical model study investigating plunge pool scour at Kariba Dam

Anton Schleiss, Erik Bollaert

Kariba Dam is a 128 m high arch dam located on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. The dam has been constructed in the late 1950s and formed at that time the largest man-made lake worldwide. The dam is equipped with 6 flood gates, each about 9 m high by 9 m wide, allowing for a total outflow of about 9000 m3/s. The plunge pool downstream of the dam consists of sound and relatively hard gneiss bedrock and is basically unlined. Nevertheless, frequent outflows generated between 1962 and 1981 have formed an

2012

Exact solutions of ideal dam break flood for arbitrary cross-section.

Even though it oversimplifies reality, the dam-break problem for frictionless fluids provides predictions relevant to various manmade and natural dam-break floods. The exact solution can also be used to test numerical schemes. However, as far as we are aware, exact solutions derived from the nonlinear shallow-water equations hold only for infinitely wide cross-sections, a feature that contrasts with most natural streams. In this study, we start from the nonlinear shallow-water equations for arbitrary cross-

2012

Riprap Protection of Vertical-Wall and Spill-Through Bridge Abutments

Anton Schleiss

Scour around bridge abutments frequently leads to the collapse of bridge superstructures. Consequently, scour countermeasures are usually designed and installed by river engineers, riprap matting being the most widespread solution. The associated design criteria must attend to two groups of failure mechanisms: i) those associated the abutment body stability, which include particle erosion, translational slide failure, modified slump and slump failure; ii) those associated with the riprap apron stability, in

2012

Dynamic response of a rock block in a plunge pool due to asymmetrical impact of a high-velocity jet

Anton Schleiss, Erik Bollaert, Matteo Paolo Elia Antonio Federspiel

Flood release structures of high-head dams generate high-velocity plunging jets. These may scour the downstream rocky riverbed and even damage the dam foundation. Assessment of the scour evolution is essential to ensure the safety of the dam and appurtenant structures, as well as to guarantee the stability of its abutments.In the framework of a research project, near-prototype scaled experimental installation generating high-velocity jet impact in a plunge pool has been equipped with an artificial rock bloc

2011

Experimental Study on Dam-Break Waves for Silted-Up Reservoirs

Anton Schleiss, Jean-Louis Boillat

The overall dam-break phenomenon is currently well understood for reservoirs filled with water. However, many dams face serious problems of reservoir sedimentation. Thus, regarding risk management, the influence of a large amount of sediment in the reservoir on dam-break wave propagation is of great importance. Experimental investigations were performed to investigate the influence of the silting degree of reservoirs and grain size distribution on wave heights and velocities. Dam-break waves in silted-up re

2011

Experimental Investigations of Dam Break Flows down an Inclined Channel.

Dam break floods on steep slopes occur in diverse settings and can encompass natural events such as mudflows and avalanches as well as the failure of manmade dams. Laboratory experiments were undertaken to investigate the dam break flows of pure water down a variably sloping, rectangular fixed bed channel. A high-speed digital camera was used to track the flow. The images were processed to compute the front wave position and velocity, the maximum water height, the passing wave depth and the wave profile. Th

Engineers Australia, July2011

Coupled spillway devices and energy dissipation system at St-Marc (France)

Anton Schleiss, Jean-Louis Boillat

The physical modeling tests for the rehabilitation of St-Marc Dam with a PKW are presented. A particular focus is put on the energy dissipation downstream from the PKW. The adopted solution is a leaned “ski-jump gutter” placed at the contact line between the downstream face of the dam and the natural foundation rock. It consists of a cylindrical profile, developed around an inclined axis and closed by a horizontal reach at the end of the structure. The aim of this solution is to guide the flow issued from t

CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group2011

Dam breaks of viscoplastic material on an inclined plane.

Steve Cochard

We report experimental results related to the dam-break problem for viscoplastic fluids. Using image processing techniques, we were able to accurately reconstruct the free-surface evolution of fixed volumes of fluid suddenly released on an inclined plane. Carbopol Ultrez 10 was used as a viscoplastic material. Varying the Carbopol concentration allowed us to change the yield stress and bulk viscosity. We investigated the behaviour of a 43-kg mass released on a plane, whose inclination ranged from 0◦ to 18◦.

Engineers Australia, July2011

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Related publications (17)

Grounding imperialism: Zschokke and the construction of the El Kansera Dam in Morocco from 1927-1934

2026

When, and for how long, two tough layers can contain the propagation of a fracture driven by the injection of a viscous fluid

2022