From the course: Practical Engineering
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How spillways work
From the course: Practical Engineering
How spillways work
- [Grady] We normally build a dam to hold water back and store it for use in water supply, irrigation, hydropower, or flood control. But sometimes we have to let some water go. Whether we need it downstream or the impounded water behind the dam is simply too full to store anymore. Nearly every dam needs a spillway to safely discharge water. Hey, I'm Grady and this is Practical Engineering. On today's episode we're talking about spillways. (upbeat music) (soft music) to understand spillways, we first have to understand hydrology, more specifically we have to understand the tremendous variability in inflows that can affect dams and reservoirs. Designing a dam would be simple if rainfall and snow melt were consistent through the year. In fact, most dams wouldn't even be necessary since hydrologic variability is the reason why most dams exist in the first place. To provide storage of water and smooth out the ebbs and spikes of…
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