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Title: Step by step: Design procedures for stepped chutes

Author
item Hunt, Sherry
item Kadavy, Kem

Submitted to: State Dam Safety Officials Association Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/10/2014
Publication Date: 9/22/2014
Citation: Hunt, S., Kadavy, K.C. 2014. Step by step: Design procedures for stepped chutes. In: Dam Safety 2014. Proceedings of the Association of State Dam Safety Officials Annual Conference, September 21-25, 2014, San Diego, CA. CDROM.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The 2013 Farm Bill reaffirms the importance of the investment in America's infrastructure and for the economic growth of our rural communities by authorizing $85 million per year and $250 million in Commodity Credit Corporation funding for watershed rehabilitation through 2018. This investment is encouraging given the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service have provided technical and financial assistance for the construction of more than 11,000 flood control dams over the past 70 years. The majority of these dams were designed with a planned service life of 50 years, but the aging of these watershed dams and changes in demographics (i.e. residential and industrial growth) within the watersheds have altered the hydrology and increased the potential for dam overtopping and the consequences associated with dam failure. These issues combined with financial constraints can limit the options available for rehabilitation and overtopping protection. One type of overtopping protection investigated by scientists at the USDA-ARS Hydraulic Engineering Research Unit in Stillwater, Oklahoma, is the application of roller compacted concrete (RCC) stepped spillways to the downstream face of the embankment dams. Scientists have developed design relationships for determining air entrainment inception point, clear-water and aerated flow depths, air concentration, and energy coefficient. This poster presentation will offer a step by step procedure for designing stepped spillways for embankment dams.