Numerous small reservoirs in hilly areas play a significant role in flood control and profit-making in the basin, but there is also a risk of dam failure when encountering special circumstances such as excessive flooding, which may cause large losses downstream. In this paper, we take the small reservoirs in Shandong Province as the research object, analyze the hydraulic topology of three types of tandem reservoirs, generalize the shape of the breach by using the transient lateral local one-break to the end, calculate the dam-break flooding process by using the quadratic parabolic method, and simulate the dam-break by using the MIKE21 model based on the principle of the two-dimensional incompressible Reynolds mean stress equation for the incompressible fluid, and analyze the peak flow under various combinations of dam-break flow by setting various combinations of the number of dam-breaks and the timing of dam-break simulation. By setting various combinations of dam failure numbers and timing, we analyzed the changing rules of peak dam failure flow, inundation area and other elements under various combinations, and sought the most unfavorable combinations and parameters such as the timing of dam failure, and the results of the analyses can provide technical support for the assessment of the risk of dam failure in the tandem reservoirs in the hilly area and the risk correspondence.