Experiments on Urban Flooding Caused by a Levee Breach

LaRocque, Lindsey Ann; Elkholy, Mohamed; Chaudhry, M. Hanif; Imran, Jasim

doi:10.1061/(asce)hy.1943-7900.0000754

Cited by 35 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Once floods occur, the casualties and financial losses for highly populated areas are inevitably large (e.g., [1][2][3]). Flooding is generally a function of river overflows, storm surges, and intense rainfall.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of Different Grid Cell Ordering Approaches in a Simplified Inundation Model

Yang

Chen

Chang

et al. 2015

Water

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This study proposes a simplified model for non-riverine flood routing using a digital elevation model. The model has the advantage of running with only a few types of input, such as topographic data and cumulative rainfall. Given its ease of use, the model is stable and reliable for developing a real-time inundation forecasting system. This model uses two approaches to determine the collection of cells from which flooding is assumed to originate: (1) A traditional "lowest-elevation approach" that assumes flooding originates from the lowest elevations and that is only based on topographic data; and (2) a novel "D-infinity contributing area approach" that assumes flooding originates at the cells toward which the flow moves and that considers in situ topography and upslope information. The flood water is transferred based on the flat-water assumption that the water levels of adjacent cells are equalized.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of Different Grid Cell Ordering Approaches in a Simplified Inundation Model

Yang

Chen

Chang

et al. 2015

Water

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“…Scaled physical models and two‐dimensional hydrodynamic models have been widely used to investigate the interaction between buildings and flood flows in urban areas (Liang et al ., ; Soares‐Frazão and Zech, ; Testa et al ., ; Dottori and Todini, ; LaRocque et al ., ). For example, Liang et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Scaled physical models and two-dimensional hydrodynamic models have been widely used to investigate the interaction between buildings and flood flows in urban areas (Liang et al, 2007;Soares-Frazão and Zech, 2007;Testa et al, 2007;Dottori and Todini, 2013;LaRocque et al, 2013). For example, Liang et al (2007) applied a two-dimensional depth-averaged hydrodynamic model to study the interaction between buildings and flood flows, with the buildings being treated as porous media.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrodynamic experiments on the impacts of vehicle blockages at bridges

Xia

Teo

Falconer

et al. 2016

J Flood Risk Management

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Most urban rivers carry much natural debris, such as vehicles and trees, during extreme flood events, and these large debris, particularly vehicles, can block a local hydraulic structure such as a bridge. Such blockages usually increase the upstream water levels and cause more water to be diverted into adjacent urban areas. A scaled physical river model was constructed in a laboratory flume, consisting of a sketched urban reach with a compound cross-sectional geometry, and experiments were conducted on three model bridges, blocked by vehicles, with the corresponding hydrodynamic impacts of these vehicles blocking bridges being investigated. The main findings obtained from the investigation show that (i) the upstream water depths in the urban river increased significantly due to the vehicle blockage, for the single opening arch bridge and the straight deck bridge, while the upstream depths increased slightly for the three-opening straight deck bridge; (ii) the non-uniformity in the velocity profiles varied along the channel centreline, with the exponents in the powerlaw velocity distribution reaching their maximum values around the first two blocked model bridges, while the exponent values changed slightly along the channel for the third model bridge due to the middle opening not being blocked; and (iii) the downstream mean velocity was slightly greater than the upstream velocity for the first two cases, with the minimum value occurring just downstream of the bridge. However, the depth-averaged velocities just downstream of the bridge were relatively higher for the third case. Therefore, the obstruction caused by vehicle blockage at bridges has significant impacts on the hydrodynamic characteristics in an urban reach, and these impacts depend on the specified bridge type and the blockage mode.

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“…Using the same scale model, Sylvie et al [30] compared measurements of urban flooding in the breach neighborhood with the 2D numerical model. LaRocque et al [31] studied the flow pattern of the New Orleans flooded the neighborhood. The flow characteristics of a side channel breach were studied by Sattar [32].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydraulic Modeling and Evaluation Equations for the Incipient Motion of Sandbags for Levee Breach Closure Operations

Sattar

Bonakdari

Gharabaghi

et al. 2019

Water

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Open channel levees are used extensively in hydraulic and environmental engineering applications to protect the surrounding area from inundation. However, levees may fail to produce an unsteady flow that is inherently three dimensional. Such a failure may lead to a destructive change in morphology of the river channel and valley. To avoid such a situation arising, hydraulic laboratory modeling was performed on an open channel levee breach model capturing velocity, in x, y and z plans, at selected locations in the breach. Sandbags of various shapes and sizes are tested for incipient motion by the breach flow. We found that a prism sandbag has a better hydrodynamic characteristic and more stability than spherical bags with the same weight. Experimental results are then used to evaluate existing empirical equations and to develop more accurate equations for predicting critical flow velocity at the initial stage of sandbag motion. Results showed the superior predictions a few of the equations could be considered with an uncertainty range of ±10%. These equations explained the initial failed attempts of the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) for breach closure of the case study, and confirmed the experimental results are simulating the case study of breach closure.

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Experiments on Urban Flooding Caused by a Levee Breach

Cited by 35 publications

References 27 publications

Comparison of Different Grid Cell Ordering Approaches in a Simplified Inundation Model

Comparison of Different Grid Cell Ordering Approaches in a Simplified Inundation Model

Hydrodynamic experiments on the impacts of vehicle blockages at bridges

Hydraulic Modeling and Evaluation Equations for the Incipient Motion of Sandbags for Levee Breach Closure Operations

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