Tools for Designing and Assessing Spillways

This event qualifies for 2 PDHs

Join us on October 8, from 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM Eastern for Tools for Designing and Assessing Spillways. Spillways are complex hydraulic structures with materials and geometries that are often tailored to unique site conditions. As such, the analysis associated with the design and assessment of spillways needs to be commensurate with the complexity of the structure and the risk posed by the structure. Some of the complex hydraulic issues often considered at spillways include approach conditions, control section performance, discharge capacity, submergence, cross waves, training wall heights, cavitation potential, joint stagnation pressures, erosion/rock scour, and energy dissipation. Tools to address these issues range from empirical methods to various types of models. Deciding which method of analysis to use is key to having a successful project that efficiently meets the intended performance criteria.

This webinar will discuss in detail these issues related to spillway hydraulics and provide an overview and comparison of available design and analysis tools including empirical methods, numerical models, and physical models. The applicability of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and/or physical models as well as the data requirements, costs, and schedule requirements associated with each will also be discussed. Example projects will be used throughout.

Learning objectives attendees will receive from this webinar:

Gain perspective of the various types of spillway and energy dissipation structures and the hydraulic issues that need to be addressed when designing and assessing them.
Understand the current best practices of spillway hydraulic design and assessment.
Develop a foundational knowledge of the available industry-accepted design and analysis tools for various spillway and energy dissipation structure types.
Learn the advantages and disadvantages of 3D CFD modeling compared to physical modeling.
Understand when a spillway requires higher order analysis tools such as a 3D CFD model or a physical model.

Speaker and Presenter Information

Greg Richards, PE, CFM
Senior Project Manager, Dams and Hydraulics

Gannett Fleming, Inc.

Greg Richards is a senior project manager and engineer at Gannett Fleming in Bountiful, Utah. He obtained his BS and MS degrees in civil engineering from Utah State University. He is responsible for the management and execution of dam rehabilitation design and assessment projects with an emphasis on hydraulic and hydrologic analysis. Greg has authored or contributed to several dam safety policy documents on both the federal and state level including Federal Guidelines for Dam Safety: Selecting and Accommodating Inflow Design Floods for Dams. He also led the development of ASDSO's DamFailures.org and DamToolbox.org websites and is an instructor for ASDSO's HEC-RAS and HEC-HMS seminars. Greg was the 2017 recipient of ASDSO’s Joseph J. Ellam President’s Award and currently serves as a member of ASDSO’s Dam Failure and Incidents Committee and chair of the DamFailures.org Subcommittee.

Brian Crookston, PhD, PE

Associate Professor

Utah State University, Utah Water Research Laboratory

Presenter Bio (2): Brian Crookston is an associate professor at Utah State University, where he joined the faculty in 2018. His research and teaching activities are focused on water sustainability and resiliency in the areas of hydraulic structures, fluvial hydraulics, and modeling and technology. Brian is involved in the design and analysis of spillways, fundamental and applied research and development of design tools, and physical and numerical modeling. He has developed spillway design guidance for the US including USACE, FEMA, and USSD, and he has also provided international design guidance for ICOLD, Germany, and Japan.

Seth Thompson, PE, SPRAT I

Dams and Hydraulics Engineer

Gannett Fleming, Inc.

Seth Thompson, P.E., SPRAT I is a dams and hydraulics engineer working with Gannett Fleming. He specializes in dam design and rehabilitation and hydraulic and hydrologic design and analysis for design and assessment projects of dams and hydraulic structures (spillways, outlet works, and stilling basins) in relation to storage, flood control, and hydropower reservoirs. Technical specialties include general, labyrinth, and piano key spillway design; hydraulic spillway assessments; 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling; 2D hydraulic modeling; detailed watershed analyses; and dam breach analyses. Seth is proficient in the use of Flow-3D, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) HEC-RAS and HEC-HMS software, Esri's ArcGIS suite, and AutoCAD Civil 3D. He received a bachelor’s and master’s degree in civil engineering from Utah State University (USU) and completed his M.S. thesis at USU's Utah Water Research Laboratory studying arced labyrinth weir hydraulic performance while also managing the data collection and reporting efforts for multiple physical hydraulic model studies.

Relevant Government Agencies

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