Debris impact under extreme hydrodynamic conditions part 1: Hydrodynamics and impact geometry

Abstract

In field investigations of major flooding events, debris impact has been identified as a critical load and has thus been included in various building codes, such as FEMA P-646 and ASCE7. However, the evaluation of debris loading solely based on field data is challenging. Therefore, to address the uncertainties related to debris loading, an experimental program investigating debris impacts on structures was performed using a dam-break wave. The debris were down-scaled 6.1 m (20 ft) shipping containers (1:40 geometric scale) which were entrained and displaced by the transient wave conditions. The study presented here examines the influence of the transient flow conditions and the flow features around the structure due to the impinging wave on the debris impact conditions. The influence of the impact geometry (obliqueness, eccentricity) on the impact force is also discussed and possible parameters to describe the impact geometry are introduced.