Investigating Failure
Failure investigations can be adversarial or cooperative, but impartiality, good engineering ethics, and professional responsibility require that the investigator begin with no premature...
Predicting Equipment Failure
At Cleveland's Westerly Water Pollution Control Center, the physical/chemical plant for treating wastewater is one of the largest of its kind, with 50 mgd average capacity....
Expert Systems for Risk Analysis
An explanation is presented on why construction risk analysis can be handled by an expert system computer program. The author offers a prototype construction risk management expert system...
Building Frame Analysis in Basic
Moment distribution has, for the past 30 years, been the most popular method of analysis for statically indeterminate structures. Programmed in Basic for the microcomputer with relative...
Aids for the Hazard Classification of Small Dams
The last few years have seen a large growth in the tools available to the engineer to better determine the risk of failure in earth dams. One of the models developed is the National Weather...
An Uncertainty Analysis Methodology Applied to Sheetpile Cofferdam Design
The input data to numerical simulation models is often uncertain, and, consequently, model predictions may be uncertain. Such uncertainties are often treated by Monte Carlo techniques....
A Stratified Mixing Channel: Theory and Experiment
The performance of a deep and stratified mixing channel is assessed theoretically and experimentally. The channel has a rectangular cross-section, a negligible longitudinal slope and is...
A Comparison of Tidal Sediment Boundary Layer Profiles with Theory
A number of theoretical derivations have been presented for predictions of the sediment concentration profile near or at the bottom of a column of surface water. Ultrasonic transceivers...
Nonhomogeneous Terms in the Unsteady Flow Equations: Modeling Aspects
A study is in progress to identify the relative significance, effects, and benefits attributable to the use of one-dimensional, unsteady, open-channel, flow-simulation models employing...
Spline Interpolations for Water Hammer Analysis
The method of characteristics (MOC) with spline polynomials for interpolations was investigated for numerical water hammer analysis. The overall accuracy is significantly improved compared...
Verification of a Generalized Mudflow Model
This paper presents the results from recently completed studies verifying the accuracy and applicability of a generalized one-dimensional model for dynamic routing of mudflows. Numerical...
Management of Water Distribution System Components
The purpose of this study is to 1) analyze main break failures and 2) incorporate other drinking water distribution system components into a data base management structure for reliability...
Analysis of Scour Problems at Louisiana Bridges
An ongoing project to automate the monitoring of scour measurements at Louisiana bridge sites is discussed. The data at selected bridges is digitized and put into computer files for analysis....
Embankment-Dam Breach Parameters
The study used data from 43 embankment-dam failures to develop equations that predict breach formation model parameters. These data include the failure mode, embankment characteristics,...
Statistical Analysis of Embankment Dam Failures
Data on embankment dam failures in the State of Colorado were analyzed. The analyses included 1,900 dams and covered a time period from 1799 to 1985. The three basic categories of data...
Analytical Simulation of Bulk Water Supply Network Reliability
The authors present an analytical method for estimating failure probabilities for a bulk water supply network with spatially dispersed supply, demand, and storage. The method examines...
Dispersal of Dredged Material Disposal Plumes
An empirical model describes dispersal of dredged material disposal plumes in an urban estuary, Central Long Island Sound, during spring of 1983. The model uses in situ current meter data...
Time Averaged Estuarine Mass Transport Equations
A methodology for deriving time averaged mass transport equations for estuaries having weakly nonlinear long wave dynamics is presented. A 2D in-plane advection-dispersion equation for...
Network Analysis for Water Supply Reliability Determination
The availability of water at a point in a distribution network is expressed in terms of the reliabilities of the components which comprise the different paths to the point from the source....
Mechanics of Embankment Erosion During Overflow
Thousands of dams built in the United States have a potential to be overtopped by flood flows. It is necessary to understand the mechanics of embankment erosion in order to evaluate the...
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