Physical and Numerical Modelling of The Dam-Break Evolution in an area with Vegetation

The importance of collecting water has always represented an interesting topic for all the populations throughout years. The possibility to catch and store it has represented a necessary thing for different reasons: crops, fauna, flood control and in the last century a valid alternative for the generation of electricity and recreational uses. The most common way to store it are the dams, from small to the bigger ones. This work deals with the study of the behaviour in case of failure of dams, and in particular focusing on the smaller. What is interesting in this is that for big dams the wave generated by the collapse of the weir does not take into account the presence or not of elements in the valley area. In fact, what generally happens is that the wave carries everything with it, due to the high head of the free surface and the high velocities reached along the way. In the case of small dams, the behaviour of the wave is completely different and the presence of elements in the downstream area can affect its development in a proper way. This is proved by the experimental work conducted at the Giorgio Bidone Hydraulics Laboratory at the Politecnico di Torino using the physical model built for the purpose. In fact, four different experiments using two types of roughness were done in the month of March 2019. The setup of the panels representing roughness could be used with an inclination of 0 degrees or 45 degrees. The second part of this work is related to the description and use of SPH (Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics), a numerical model used to simulate the experiments under study. All the data collected from the physical model are compared with SPH in order to validate SPH. This model is based on a mesh-less method in which the fluid is described as a group of particles. SPH is based on the solution of Navier-Stokes equations, continuity equation and momentum equation, using information of the neighbouring particles to detect all the quantities searched. The aims of the study are: validation of SPH and evaluation of the hazard related to dam-breaks event for small reservoirs.