Experimental and numerical study of the breaching of an embankment dam

In the framework of the study of the collapse of an embankment dam following its
overtopping, an experimental study of the progressive breaching of such a dam has been
performed. The present laboratory tests enable to validate and to complete a numerical
approach previously studied by the authors. The two-dimensional analysis of the breaching is
carried out on a scale model in a flume. A cross-section of a dam is scaled according to proper
similarity rules, both for the flow and for the solid transport. The originality of the approach
lies in the interaction between the experimental and numerical work. The experiments on the
scale model are filmed in order to determine the time evolution of the dam profiles. The cross
sections are extracted from the films and analyzed by an image-processing algorithm
specifically developed for this application. These results are integrated into the hydrodynamic
model WOLF2D, which computes the flow generated by the given transient topography and
eventually supplies the relevant hydraulic parameters characterizing the dam breaching.