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“It is important to recognize that during a rare event with the emergency spillway flowing at its design capacity, spillway operations would not affect reservoi
by krapht 10y ago
“It is important to recognize that during a rare event with the emergency spillway flowing at its design capacity, spillway operations would not affect reservoir control or endanger the dam,” wrote John Onderdonk, a senior civil engineer with FERC, in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s San Francisco Office, in a July 27, 2006, memo to his managers.
“The emergency spillway meets FERC’s engineering guidelines for an emergency spillway,” he added. “The guidelines specify that during a rare flood event, it is acceptable for the emergency spillway to sustain significant damage.”
tl;dr: in case of flood, anything goes so long as the main dam wall remains functional?
- rhizome 10y agoYou can't just pave a lake, engineers have to be calculating the dirt spillways as ablative. Water is powerful stuff.
- the_cap_theorem 10y agowhat does ablative mean in this context?
- wiredfool 10y agoIt erodes in normal use.
- Someone 10y agohttp://www.geography.learnontheinternet.co.uk/topics/river_erosion.html http://www.geography.learnontheinternet.co.uk/topics/river_e...: "Rivers erode in four ways: Abrasion or corrasion - This is when large pieces of bedload material wear away the river banks and bed. Attrition - This is when the bed load itself is eroded when sediment particles knock against the bed or each other and break, becoming more rounded and smaller. Hydraulic Action - This is when the force of water erodes softer rock. Solution or corrosion - This is when acidic water erodes rock." So, there will be larger pieces of rock intake water that hit the bank of the spillway, slowly destroying it. When engineering the spillway, you have to take that into account. That means we have to accept that it will need repairs after use, just as a fire extinguisher needs it after use.