Overtopped Dams Would Likely Lead to Catastrophic Failure

Andrew Kennedy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering & Earth Sciences at the University of Notre Dame.

As flooding in and around Houston continues threatening major dams outside of the city, Kennedy says, "Once reservoirs become full, dam operators have to perform controlled releases to ensure that the dam is not overtopped, which would likely lead to catastrophic failure. Letting water out of the spillways in a controlled manner may be the only option available to them. Once the reservoir is full and there is still more water entering, the good options are gone and the engineers operating the dam must do what they can to prevent catastrophic failure."

Professor Kennedy's research focuses on waves, surge, and currents in the coastal ocean and their effects on human activities. Parts of this work are observational, ranging from the rapid deployment of wave and surge gauges in advance of hurricane landfalls, to the analysis of very large-scale bathymetric lidar datasets to determine morphological changes during large storms.

A recent focus correlates observed storm damage to observed and predicted hydrodynamics in coastal regions. Parts of Professor Kennedy's research are theoretical and computational, and deal with water wave theory in shallow and deep water, and in the generation of near-shore circulation by breaking waves.

This work has direct application to the prediction of storm waves and water levels, damage, and erosion.