Designing Slope Protection for Dams and Levees

Slopes on the upstream side of dams are subject to wind-generated waves. Likewise, levees along river banks experience wind waves, boat wakes and current forces. This webinar will describe how winds produce waves in reservoirs and other enclosed bodies of water. Wave heights and periods resulting from winds blowing across the water surface will be calculated as a function of wind speed, duration, water depth and fetch distance. Wakes produced by various vessels traveling at different speeds and distances from a levee and/or dam will be quantified. Wind set up in reservoirs will be calculated. Runup and the potential for wave overtopping of slopes will be calculated for various slopes and types of slope protection. Rubble revetments, rip-rap revetments and other types of slope protection will be described and design methods presented.

People who take this course will learn the following regarding the design of slope protection:

1. How to analyze and adjust wind data to predict waves for the design of slope protection,
2. How to calculate wave heights and periods from wind speed and direction data, and reservoir characteristics,
3. How to estimate wave heights and periods for various boats and ships based on their speed, hull geometry and distance from a levee or dam,
4. How to estimate wind-induced setup in a reservoir,
5. How to estimate runup on various slopes and the potential for wave overtopping in order to determine freeboard,
6. How to select stone sizes for rip rap and rubble mound revetments in a given wave environment, and
7. How to design other types of slope protection.

Speaker and Presenter Information

J. Richard Weggel, Professor Emeritus, Department of Civil, Architectural & Environmental Engineering
Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA

J. Richard “Rich” Weggel is a native of Philadelphia. He is a 1964 graduate of the civil engineering program at the Drexel Institute of Technology. He attended graduate school at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana where he received the Ph.D. degree in 1968 specializing in hydraulics, hydrology and water resources engineering. He subsequently joined the civil engineering faculty at Illinois as an assistant professor. Following a summer position with the US Army Corps of Engineers Coastal Engineering Research Center (CERC) at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, he joined that organization in 1971 as a Hydraulic Engineer where he was a major contributor and technical editor of the Corps’ new coastal design manual, the Shore Protection Manual. He also served as Special Assistant to the Director, Assistant Chief of the Engineering Division and Chief of the Evaluation Branch while at CERC. While at CERC he served as a consultant to Corps Districts and Divisions on coastal engineering problems.

In 1983 Rich returned to Drexel as an Associate Professor. In 1988, as a newly tenured professor, he became head of the renamed Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering. Later he served as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Affairs in the College of Engineering and as interim head of the renamed Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering. Rich retired in 2008 as the Samuel S. Baxter Professor of Civil Engineering.

For over 30 years Rich has served as a private consultant and expert witness in the areas of coastal engineering, coastal processes, surface water hydrology and flooding. He also contributed to several chapters of the Corps’ new Coastal Engineering Manual.

Relevant Government Agencies

Army, Dept of Energy, Dept of Homeland Security, Dept of the Interior, Other Federal Agencies, State Government, County Government, City Government, Municipal Government, FEMA, Federal Government, State & Local Government