Virtual Failure Influence of Roseires Dam on Khartoum City Using HEC-RAS Hydraulic Simulation Modeling

Abstract

Dam break is series phenomenon that can result in fatal consequences and loss of properties. Unfortunately, the observed consequences can only be available after the dam breaks. Therefore, it is important to anticipate what will happen prior to dam break to issue suitable warning and locate the possible risk areas. This study attempts to simulate the case of dam break in Blue Nile at Roseires dam and see its consequences downstream. Roseires dam lies at a distance of 630 km south of Khartoum, Sennar dam lies at about 260 km downstream of Roseires dam. In this study hydraulic model is developed based of Hydraulic Engineering Centre (HEC), River Analysis System (RAS), and HEC-RAS. The HEC-RAS based model is calibrated and validated using observed data of the Blue Nile for several flood years. The calibrated and validated model is used to analyze the impact of flood wave due to dam break failure of Roseires dam to provide the following information: the maximum discharge, the maximum water level, the maximum velocity, the velocity and depth profiles, the flooding extent, etc. Several dam break scenarios that cover the possible failure modes were considered and the scenario that gives the worst situation is present in this paper. Piping is considered as failure mode with different failure parameters. It was found that failure of Roseires dam result in overtopping failure of Sennar dam due to the inability of the Sennar reservoir and dam to withstand the flood wave. The results also indicated that the maximum flood wave resulting from the failure of Roseires dam reaches Khartoum in 4, 6, 7 and 9 days when the maximum flow is 33105, 14724, 13249 and 12443 m3/s respectively the cities (Roseires, Sennar, Wad Medani and Khartoum ). The respective water surface level of flood wave is 481.01, 428.37 and 382.5 m in Roseires, Sennar and Khartoum and the wave speed at Khartoum is 8.97 m/s.