Experimental and theoretical investigation of dam break problem

In this study, dam break problem has been handled experimentally, theoretically and numerically. Propagation of flood waves along downstream resulting from dam break which has been generated by instantaneous removal of a barrier between two bodies of water at rest with different levels above a horizontal bed has been examined for different tailwater depths. Besides, variations of bed topography and the channel width effects on dam break flood waves propagation have been studied by using bottom sills and establishing contraction with different geometry in the channel. In experiments, water surface profiles and water depth variations with time along downstream have been determined by using digital image processing techniques. The experimental results have been compared with analytical solutions, numerical solutions of the shallow water equations and Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes equations. FLOW-3D computational fluid dynamic software has been used for numerical solutions Key words: Dam-break, Floods, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Unsteady Flow, Image Processing