Australian Civil/Structural Engineering Transactions, Vol. CE39,
no.2 and 3, 1997
Summary: Inflatable flexible membrane dams (IFMD) have been used
for the past 40 years in river and coastal engineering
applications. Despite an increasing interest for IFMD, little
information is available on the hydrauli performances of IFMD
during overflow periods. Overflow situations may occur with
deflated or inflated membranes. Both situation are described. It
has been recognised that overflowing waters may induce some form of
fluid-structure interactions, which might cause vibrations of the
IFMD structure, leading to damage or destruction of the membrane.
Several flow instability mechanism are reviewed and associated
hazards are discussed. For overflow situtations above inflated
dams, new flow calculations are detailed and the results give new
information on the wall pressure distribution along the downstream
face of the dam. A mechanism of cavitating flow separation is also
explained.