Introduction to Armoring Embankment Dams and Earth-Cut Spillways with ACBs Over the past 23 years numerous embankment dams and earth-cut spillways in the United States have been armored with Articulating Concrete Blocks (ACBs) to provide overtopping protection and to extend the life of the structures. With the current focus on evaluating and rehabilitating dams throughout the United States to pass increased design flows, the use of this const...

Labyrinth weirs are widely used in spillway rehabilitation to upgrade existing dams to meet updated spillway design flood criteria. In addition to increasing discharge capacity, these weirs are also well suited to regulating upstream pool elevations for flood control or at intake structures. The hydraulic design of a labyrinth spillway requires the consideration of complex flow characteristics and optimization of multiple geometric parameters...

Effective energy dissipation of flows from outlet works and spillways is an extremely important component in dam safety. Undersized or ineffective structures can lead to damage and failure, possibly endangering the dam or the flow channel and properties downstream. Generalized design criteria for many different types of energy dissipaters and/or stilling basins exist from several different government agencies, both federal and state (including...

The Webinar will have four ½ hour sessions and will begin with a brief review of the Hydraulics 101 Lectures. Uniform flow, specific energy, and gradually varied flow will be covered in the first session. Hydraulic modeling and water surface profile computations will be covered in the second session and geometric data requirements will be addressed in the third session. The final session will concentrate on the development of the Hydro...

The Hydrology 201 Webinar consists of four one-half hour segments. The first segment is a brief review of Hydrology 101 emphasizing some of the important hydrologic issues. The second segment will concentrate on the NRCS procedures to determine the loss rate function and the dimensionless unit hydrograph as it is utilized to transform excess rainfall into runoff. Different methods of determining time of concentration and lag time will be cove...

Fluid Mechanics provides the theoretical foundation for hydraulics, which focuses on the engineering uses of fluid properties. Hydraulic topics include concepts such as pipe flow, dam design, pumps, hydropower, flow measurements, and open channel flow. The flow of water in an open channel in natural rivers is common, however, the solution to estimate water surface elevations can be a difficult problem when everything is considered, especially...

Hydrology is the study of the movement, distribution, and quality of water throughout the Earth, and thus addresses both the hydrologic cycle and water resources. A practitioner of hydrology is a hydrologist, working within the fields of earth or environmental science, physical geography or civil and environmental engineering. Broadly, hydrology is classified into two groups. The scientific hydrology is concerned mainly with the academic aspec...

Data centers get a bad rap. Too old, too many, too inefficient, too expensive – we’ve heard it all. But data centers are still the life blood of operations and missions in government, and aren’t going anywhere. With a renewed focus from both the Hill and OMB to reform IT and meet aggressive metrics, now is the time for IT leaders to accelerate data center transformation. How can agencies operate their facilities effectively a...

The US Department of Energy Federal Energy Management Program is pleased to announce the First Thursday Seminar Data Center Energy Efficiency Best Practices that will air on Thursday, April 7th, 2015 from 1:30 to 3:00 pm EST. This seminar will cover why energy-efficient data centers are critical, energy-efficiency opportunities, and energy management improvement processes. Topics include best practices for acquisition, benchmarking, performanc...