Designing Slope Protection for Dams and Levees: On-Demand

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Slopes on the upstream side of dams are subject to wind-generated waves. Likewise, levees along river banks experience wind waves, boat wakes and current forces. This webinar will describe how winds produce waves in reservoirs and other enclosed bodies of water. Wave heights and periods resulting from winds blowing across the water surface will be calculated as a function of wind speed, duration, water depth and fetch distance. Wakes produced by various vessels traveling at different speeds and distances from a levee and/or dam will be quantified. Wind set up in reservoirs will be calculated. Runup and the potential for wave overtopping of slopes will be calculated for various slopes and types of slope protection. Rubble revetments, rip-rap revetments, and other types of slope protection will be described and design methods presented.

Key Takeaways:

Analyzing and adjusting wind data to predict waves for the design of slope protection.
Calculating wave heights and periods from wind speed and direction data, and reservoir characteristics.
Estimating wave heights and periods for various boats and ships based on their speed, hull geometry and distance from a levee or dam.
Estimating wind-induced setup in a reservoir.
Estimating runup on various slopes and the potential for wave overtopping in order to determine freeboard.
Selecting stone sizes for rip rap and rubble mound revetments in a given wave environment.
Designing other types of slope protection.

J. Richard Weggel, Ph.D., P.E., D.CE

Professor Emeritus, Drexel University

J. Richard “Rich” Weggel is a native of Philadelphia. He is a 1964 graduate of the civil engineering program at the Drexel Institute of Technology. He attended graduate school at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana where he received the Ph.D. degree in 1968 specializing in hydraulics, hydrology and water resources engineering. He subsequently joined the civil engineering faculty at Illinois as an assistant professor. Following a summer position with the US Army Corps of Engineers Coastal Engineering Research Center (CERC) at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, he joined that organization in 1971 as a Hydraulic Engineer where he was a major contributor and technical editor of the Corps’ new coastal design manual, the Shore Protection Manual. He also served as Special Assistant to the Director, Assistant Chief of the Engineering Division and Chief of the Evaluation Branch while at CERC. While at CERC he served as a consultant to Corps Districts and Divisions on coastal engineering problems.