PROJECT 01 · Scientific Software Development · 2026 – PresentOngoing · research code
Dam Breach Studio: Mechanistic Dam-Breach & GLOF Hazard-Screening Tool
An open-source model of how earthen and moraine dams breach, from the trigger (piping, overtopping, or an ice or rock avalanche into the lake) to the outflow hydrograph. It computes breach growth from hydraulics and erosion instead of prescribing final breach dimensions from regressions. Developed as an independent researcher while working as a Research Assistant at the Center for Applied Research and Development (CARD).
- Time-marching 1D breach engine in the browser that tracks reservoir stage, breach geometry and discharge together.
- Overtopping and piping failure, with pipe enlargement, roof collapse and WinDAM-style headcut migration.
- Moraine bank stability through discrete mass wasting (1D) and Culmann factor-of-safety collapse (2D).
- VAW 2D/3D impulse-wave procedures for avalanche- and landslide-triggered GLOF waves.
Engine details & verification
- 2D finite-volume shallow-water engine in Python/NumPy: HLL Riemann solver, well-balanced hydrostatic reconstruction, Exner bed updating, so breach location and shape emerge from the solution.
- Cohesive erosion from Wan & Fell or Hanson JET erodibility; granular transport from Meyer-Peter–Müller with Smart gradation.
- 67 / 67 verification checks passing, including 25 impulse-wave values extracted directly from the ETH VAW reference workbook.
- Teton Dam (1976) peak discharge reproduced within 15%; timing gaps and open defects are documented in the repository.
- Hydrographs export to CSV, JSON and Excel for downstream routing in HEC-RAS.
TypeScriptReactPythonNumPyEngineering hydraulicsSediment transport
DIG TSHO 1985 · 2D ENGINE SENSITIVITY SWEEP
Hover a run to see its settings.
Peak outflow vs. time to peak as erodibility (kd) and Manning's n vary. The band shows published estimates of the 1985 event (1,375–2,000 m³/s). This is a sensitivity test registered before running, not a calibration.