Dam Breach Analysis using HEC-RAS

Instructor

Martin J. Teal, P.E., P.H., D.WRE.,
Mr. Teal has worked with hydraulic models for more than 15 years and is currently a Vice President with WEST Consultants. His experience includes working as a hydraulic engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and as a civil engineer for a large multinational firm in Chile. As a private consultant with WEST, he has dealt with complex hydraulic, hydrologic, and sedimentation problems. He has used computational models, such as HEC-RAS, as a principal tool to deal with these problems for clients in both the public and private sectors throughout the United States and internationally.

Mr. Teal earned his BS in Civil Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and his MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering (Hydraulics) from the University of Iowa. He has taught HEC-RAS courses since 1997 throughout the U.S. and Latin America.

Christopher R. Goodell, P.E., D.WRE.,
Mr. Goodell is a senior hydraulic engineer with WEST Consultants with over 10 years of experience in computational hydraulics, river hydraulics and hydraulic design. He spent two years at the Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC) actively working on the development of HEC-RAS. In addition, Mr. Goodell is a contributing author to the HEC-RAS manuals and has applied HEC-RAS to a wide range of complex problems, including dam breaks, bridge and culvert hydraulics, spillway and outlet works design, stable channel design, and floodplain mapping. He also has experience in moveable bed hydraulics and has contributed to the incorporation of sediment transport and sediment impact modeling into HEC-RAS. Mr. Goodell earned his B.S. degree in civil engineering at Oregon State University and his M. Eng. in Hydraulic Engineering from the International Institute for Hydraulic Engineering (IHE) in Delft, The Netherlands. Mr. Goodell has taught HEC-RAS courses and provided technical support for HEC-RAS since 2000.

Raymond Walton, P.E., Ph.D., D.WRE.,
Mr. Walton has nearly 30 years of experience directing water resources projects for a variety of federal, state, local government and private clients. He is a nationally recognized expert in water resources and computer modeling, including surface water, groundwater and water quality systems. He is currently a Vice President with WEST Consultants. Dr. Walton started with the Rivers Division of Hydraulic Research Station in the U.K., developing and applying hydraulic flood routing models. He taught hydraulics, hydrology, water resources, and mechanics at N.C. State University. He then worked for more than 15 years for two large firms on the east coast and in Washington state, where he managed numerous water resources engineering and modeling studies. He has applied models to numerous rivers, estuaries and coastal areas to simulate flooding, circulation, and water quality, and he has applied HEC-RAS to more than 100 river systems throughout the United States. He received his BSc. in Mathematics from University College, London, his M.Sc. in Engineering Hydrology from the University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, and his Ph.D. in Hydraulics from the University of Florida.

Course Description

This intensive, workshop-oriented, three-day seminar will prepare the engineer and water resource professional to use the HEC-RAS computer program for running dam breach simulations. Led by experts from WEST Consultants with practical experience in dam breach modeling, participants will learn how to approach and conduct a dam breach problem, estimate breaching parameters, construct an HEC-RAS unsteady flow model of the dam breach, and eliminate errors and instabilities in the model run.

The HEC-RAS modeling system was developed as part of the Hydrologic Engineering Center’s “Next Generation” software and replaces several existing Corps of Engineers programs, including the HEC-2 water surface profile program. HEC-RAS incorporates various aspects of hydraulic modeling, including water surface profile computations and bridge hydraulics.

Version 3.1.3 of HEC-RAS includes advances in open channel hydraulic analysis such as:

• Dam and Levee Breach Analysis including multiple dam and/or levee breaching
• Availability of all widely used methods for bridge and culvert hydraulic analysis, which can be used in conjunction with dam breaching
• Ability to perform steady and unsteady mixed flow regime computations
• Many other capabilities developed from years of experience with HEC-2 and other major hydraulic analysis computer programs

HEC-RAS is user friendly, computationally efficient, and runs within, and fully supports, the Microsoft Windows environment. It uses the latest graphical user interface (GUI) technology for data entry, graphics, and display of program results. Complete context-sensitive help screens are available for every program feature and option. Software includes the following functions: file management, data entry and editing, hydraulic analyses, tabulation and graphical displays of input and output data, reporting facilities, and on-line help.

HEC-RAS is one of the most extensively tested civil engineering computer programs ever developed. In addition to extensive in-house testing at the Hydrologic Engineering Center and at other Corps of Engineers’ offices, the program has been through two full “beta” releases, during which the program was tested by thousands of engineers in the private and public sectors.

Seminar Benefits

• Learn how to use the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ HEC-RAS (River Analysis System) computer program to conduct dam breach analyses
• Gain hands-on HEC-RAS experience by participating in practical computer workshops
• Get an overview of hydraulic principles for rivers, waterway bridges, and culverts and how they work within a dam breach model
• Understand breaching parameters and how to choose them
• Obtain valuable insights in methods for minimizing computation errors and instabilities commonly associated with unsteady hydraulic models

Who Should Attend

Consulting engineers, water resource planners, engineers employed by local, state, or federal government agencies who are currently, or at some point plan to execute and/or review dam breach hydraulic studies. Participants should have sound experience in HEC-RAS steady flow computer modeling and some experience in HEC-RAS unsteady flow computer modeling. They should also be able to follow simple computer instructions.