Predicting Spillway Failure

摘要

Scientists at the Hydraulic Laboratory of the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Reclamation completed a multi-year study intended to provide design information concerning uplift and structural collapse of spillway slabs with open offset joints or cracks. This data was needed for many aging facilities where cracks and joints open up. The use of risk-based processes for scheduling repairs is only as good as the data that is fed into the process. Designers had been using data from the 1970s and scaling it up, not knowing if the scaling procedures were entirely correct. In addition, there was no data available on the quantity of flow that could be expected for various specific crack and joint geometries.