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Michael Pfister

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Related publications (79)

Page 3 of 4

Effect of a second layer on the time to failure of compressed riprap as mountain riverbank protection

Anton Schleiss, Michael Pfister, Mário Jorge Rodrigues Pereira Da Franca, Mona Jafarnejad Chaghooshi

Recently, Jafarnejad, Franca, Pfister, and Schleiss [2017. Time-based failure analysis of compressed riverbank riprap. Journal of Hydraulic Research, 55(2), 224–235. doi: 10.1080/00221686.2016.1212940] presented an experimental study on the stability of co ...

Taylor & Francis Ltd2019

Effect of compressed riprap thickness on the stability of river banks

Anton Schleiss, Mário Jorge Rodrigues Pereira Da Franca, Michael Pfister, Mona Jafarnejad Chaghooshi

One of the common measures for river bank protection is the installation of riprap. There are several methods to design riprap appropriately, which are however generally limited to dumped medium size blocks. Nevertheless, an additional resistance against e ...

CRC Press/Balkema2014

Effect of an abrupt slope change on air entrainment and flow depths at stepped spillways

Anton Schleiss, Michael Pfister, José Pedro Gamito de Saldanha Calado Matos, Mohammad Javad Ostad Mirza

Several stepped spillways have been built in recent decades, mostly integrated in the downstream faces of roller compacted concrete dams. Among them, only a few have changing bottom slopes. Comprehensive information on the effect of a slope change on the f ...

Taylor & Francis Ltd2017

Debris-Blocking Sensitivity of Piano Key Weirs under Reservoir-Type Approach Flow

Anton Schleiss, Michael Pfister

The collection of floating woody debris at flow control structures, such as spillways and weirs, can potentially result in reduced discharge efficiency (higher upstream head for a given weir discharge). Compared to less hydraulically-efficient control stru ...

Asce-Amer Soc Civil Engineers2013

BLOCKING PROBABILITY OF DRIFTWOOD AT OGEE CREST SPILLWAYS WITH PIERS: INFLUENCE OF WOODY DEBRIS CHARACTERISTICS

Anton Schleiss, Michael Pfister, José Pedro Gamito de Saldanha Calado Matos, Paloma Furlan

Spillways are designed to evacuate floods in a safe way. They should safely release water in order to avoid dam overtopping with its related damages. Nevertheless, it may be dangerous to assume that a flood is only carrying “clear” water. Large woody debri ...

2017

Example of wave impact on a residential house

Anton Schleiss, Michael Pfister, Davide Wüthrich

Waves impacting against structures can create damages and devastation. This topic regained interest after some recent catastrophic events and the present paper investigates the main phases of a wave impacting against a residential house commonly observed i ...

2016

Bottom-Pressure Development Due to an Abrupt Slope Reduction at Stepped Spillways

Anton Schleiss, Michael Pfister, José Pedro Gamito de Saldanha Calado Matos, Mohammad Javad Ostad Mirza

Fluctuating bottom-pressures on stepped chutes are relevant for the spillway design. An abrupt slope reduction causes a local alteration of the bottom-pressure development. Little information is available regarding the air–water flow properties near an abr ...

2022

Bottom pressure characteristics in a stilling basin downstream of a stepped spillway for two different chute slopes

Anton Schleiss, Michael Pfister, José Pedro Gamito de Saldanha Calado Matos, Ivan Stojnic

In the last decades numerous stepped spillways were built, mostly on the downstream face of roller compacted concrete (RCC) dams. Stilling basins are often used as an energy dissipater. Although the hydraulics of stepped chutes was extensively investigated ...

The University of Queensland2020

Air entrainment and pressure development in skimming flow on an abrupt slope change on stepped spillways

Anton Schleiss, Michael Pfister, José Pedro Gamito de Saldanha Calado Matos, Mohammad Javad Ostad Mirza

Numerous stepped spillways were built to date, namely on RCC gravity dams or on valley flanks besides embankment or rockfill dams, while some others are currently under design or construction. In some cases, slope changes may be required on stepped chutes, ...

2015

Time Dependent Failure Analysis of Compressed Riprap as Riverbank Protection

Anton Schleiss, Michael Pfister, Mário Jorge Rodrigues Pereira Da Franca, Mona Jafarnejad Chaghooshi

Riprap is a common measure for protecting river banks against lateral erosion and several methods exist to design them. However, they are generally limited to dumped medium size rocks. If large rock blocks are required for stability reasons, they cannot be ...

TUP2013

Comparison of chute aerator effect on stepped and smooth spillways

Anton Schleiss, Michael Pfister, Stéphane Christian Olivier Terrier

Bottom chute aerators are installed to prevent cavitation damages and they have been studied in detail on smooth spillways. In parallel, stepped spillways became widespread in the past decades. Research has shown that stepped spillways may be endangered ev ...

2015

Mobile Riverbed Scour Downstream of a Piano Key Weir

Anton Schleiss, Michael Pfister

In parallel to their most frequent application as an auxiliary dam spillway, piano key weirs (PKWs) are also installed on low-head barrages in combination with run-off-the-river power plants. Their efficient rating curve, advantageous behavior under driftw ...

Asce-Amer Soc Civil Engineers2016

Effect of building overtopping on induced loads during extreme hydrodynamic events

Anton Schleiss, Michael Pfister, Davide Wüthrich

Tsunamis, impulse-waves and dam-break waves have affected humanity in recent decades and the construction of vertical shelters can provide safety to people. However, for non-critical infrastructures, typically residential houses of lower height, overtoppin ...

Taylor & Francis Ltd2019

Chute Aerators : Steep Deflectors and Cavity Subpressure

Michael Pfister

Chute aerators are applied to high-velocity spillways to entrain air into the flow so that cavitation damage is avoided. Air entrainment occurs locally at the aerator, whereas further downstream the flow is deaerated. This process is relevant because it de ...

2011

Junction chamber at vortex drop shaft: case study of Cossonay

Michael Pfister, Gaetano Crispino

The drainage network of the city of Cossonay (Switzerland) is currently being adapted for future needs. In particular, it is required to drain increased storm discharges due to a population augmentation and to provide an adequate concept to overcome unfavo ...

2016

History and significance of the Morton number in hydraulic engineering

Michael Pfister

Two-phase air-water flows occur frequently in hydraulic engineering. Their characteristics, particularly the depth-averaged air concentrations, are of relevance for design. These must be known, for instance, to provide an adequate chute freeboard, or to av ...

Asce-Amer Soc Civil Engineers2014

Piano Key Weir for Enlargement of the West Fork of Eno River Reservoir

Michael Pfister

The West Fork of Eno River Reservoir Dam is located near Hillsborough, North Carolina, USA. The earthen embankment dam provides an impoundment used by the town for water supply. The project was originally completed in 2000 with forethought by the owner for ...

2016

Effect of deflector aerator on stepped spillway flow

Anton Schleiss, Michael Pfister, Stéphane Christian Olivier Terrier

Systematic physical model tests are performed on a stepped spillway equipped with a bottom aerator at the beginning of the stepped part. A deflector is used to issue a jet in order to initiate air entrainment into the flow. A horizontal slot located in the ...

2016

Historical development of side-channel spillway in hydraulic engineering

Michael Pfister

Side-channels are a typical element of earth or rockfill dams to discharge floods sideways instead frontally, such as normally adopted for concrete dams. The side channel received attention from the hydraulics community from the 1920s, once the first large ...

2011

Scale effects related to the rating curve of cylindrically crested Piano Key weirs

Anton Schleiss, Giovanni De Cesare, Michael Pfister, Elena Battisacco

Hydraulic scale effects on physical Piano Key weir (PKW) models were so far rarely discussed in literature, even though almost all prototypes are model-tested before construction. In parallel, physical weir models are generally known to include significant ...

Erpicum et al., CRC Press, Boca Raton2013