Dam Break Hydrodynamic Modeling Experience Using Two-dimensional Software

Dams play a very important role in current water supply. These structures contain large volumes of water and sediments, whereby total or partial failure may lead to enormous material damage and/or human losses. This fact motivates the comprehensive study of the structure designs and strict quality building control to be carried in the construction process of dams, in addition to the necessary and inevitable study of a dam failure process, so we can perform a good risk analysis in case of disaster. Using numerical software during project stage for modeling failure scenarios such as dam breaching represents a powerful tool for risk assessment as they are capable to estimate the consequences of any eventual flooding due to dam failure. Hereby it is presented the results of a two-dimensional overtopping dam breaching study case located in Lara state Venezuela. It has been modeled with ISIS 2D (CH2M) and BREACH software (River Mechanics), by using different methods and resources on a theoretical and practical experiences basis, highlighting water behavior as flooding wave propagates downstream. As a conclusion of an exhaustive analysis, it is possible to asseverate about the feasibility of using the procedures and software previously described for dam breach modeling from the consistency of the obtained values and the model stability, standing out as a gateway to the key field of dam break hydrodynamic modeling which is an area that has been poorly explored in Latin-America.