Breach Analysis
Flood defences are designed following a certain criterion, dependent on the type and extent of the area they protect. Defences offer varying Standards of Protection and can protect land and existing developments from flood events of different magnitude. If a certain area is defined as being protected by defences, then it can be necessary to assess the level of risk to the site if the defences were to breach.
A breach in a defence is where the defence fails and collapses leaving an opening for water to flow through. A breach analysis assesses the flow velocity, rate of inundation and water depth to determine the flood risk in a defended area where the defences fail.
Flood Modeller allows you to quickly and accurately model overtopping and breach failure mechanisms in detail, including how a failure develops and changes over time.
Use Flood Modeller’s advanced solvers to confidently model the propagation of flooding that results from a defence failure.
Key benefits
⟶ Accurately model dam and embankment overtopping or piping breach failure mechanisms
⟶ Quickly model how the breach develops and changes over time based on modelled water levels
⟶ Effectively represent 2D ‘shock’ hydraulics
⟶ Determine flood risk in defended areas due to defences breach
⟶ Assess flow velocity, rate of inundation and wate depths
⟶ Accelerate model runtimes by utilising GPU solver
Watch how it's done
Flood modelling at Toddbrook Reservoir
In this webinar, our expert demonstrates how they used Flood Modeller following the safety incident at Toddbrook Reservoir in August 2019. Find out how an initial hydraulic model was developed following the incident and how the uncertainties in the modelling were communicated to better manage the immediate risks to the community downstream.
Fast and accurate modelling
Undertaking robust and accurate modelling of the failure of a defence structure, such as an embankment, which can have significant consequences, enables you to better understand the risks and be better prepared to respond should it ever occur.
Flood Modeller provides the option to overlay a breach on top of an existing Spill unit in order to model a breach in an embankment, bank or dam. The breach formation is modelled as a time series of deformation dimensions, with the offset time specified as the simulation start time or a trigger level at the spill/breach unit. The outflow from the breach can then be propagated through a 1D or 2D model.
You can model the overtopping breach of a structure, with the failure emanating from the crest of the structure (open breach) and enlarging over time or model a piping breach, which starts as a small hole in a structure that enlarges over time and may ultimately collapse into an open breach.
Using the 2D GPU solver can help provide an improved understanding of flood extents and travel times of the flood wave. The GPU solver has been specifically developed to be robust and more accurate, than other types of solvers, when there are rapid changes in flood depths and velocities.
The advanced features that you find in Flood Modeller allow you to easily model the impacts of a defence structure failure for events of different flood severity, allowing you to fully understand the flood risks for your area of interest.