About destruction of concrete dams on the soft basis

The article covers physical and mathematical model of the process of breaching of concrete dams on a soft base by bottom currents. The model is represented by a system of ordinary differential equations of the first order.

The numerical algorithm is developed for solving the system, presuming the special conditions are imposed for integration of the equations in case of washout of sections of a multisection dam. The solution is obtained through explicit single-step integration scheme (Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg method) — both for single-section and multisection dams. The integration scheme is modified taking into consideration the special conditions formulated to be imposed on the sections. The graphs are constructed for the following functions: breach development and water storage level.

The worked out approach allows to solve a number of problems oriented on erosion of dams on a soft base, consisting of many sections. The model is burning for damage estimates from the consequence of the dam-break wave, the estimates necessary for undertaking protection measures from emergency situations connected with catastrophic breakdowns of dams, and for minimizing the damage from breakdowns as well.