ENAC Seminar Series by Dr D. Wüthrich
Event details
| Date | 26.09.2019 |
| Hour | 15:00 › 16:00 |
| Speaker | Dr Davide Wüthrich |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
15:00 – 16:00 – Dr Davide Wüthrich
Postdoctoral Researcher, The University of Queensland, Australia
SURVIVING NATURAL DISASTERS – A paradigm shift in the design of hydraulic infrastructures
The world is changing, not only its climate! Most recent studies agree that the future will experience more frequent and severe hazards, including natural and man-induced floods, droughts, extreme storms, dam-break waves and tsunamis. In Switzerland, a report from the Federal Council showed that increasing temperatures will be responsible for more violent and unpredictable storms, harmful not only to people, but also to critical infrastructure and energy production. In addition, a warmer climate will favour the melting of mountain glaciers, generating supplementary resources for the achievement of the Energy Strategy 2050. These will be associated with an increasing risk of impulse waves in alpine lakes and dam reservoirs, with potential damages to both people and the environment.
Such catastrophic events can no longer be considered too rare to be relevant and actions must be undertaken to guarantee safety, mitigate damage and reduce reconstruction costs. In parallel, today’s race toward a more sustainable exploitation of resources challenges the classical hydraulic design, requiring a paradigm shift toward a multi-hazard approach with transdisciplinary nature-based solutions. Thus, the issue of resilience of water infrastructure is of primordial importance, and mitigation measures should be promptly identified and implemented. In this context, this seminar initially focuses on the repercussions of highly unsteady flows on infrastructure. More specifically, the effect of structural openings on the hydrodynamic load is addressed both experimentally and numerically. Results showed that a more comprehensive understanding of these phenomena and their driving mechanism is essential to develop innovative solutions to improve design guidelines. Secondly, this seminar presents additional challenges associated with extreme floods, including air-entrainment, the effect of driftwood accumulation and associated structural loading. This reveals that a combination of innovative research, quality education and interdisciplinary collaborations is the only approach to successfully overcome the challenges that current and future infrastructures are facing.
Postdoctoral Researcher, The University of Queensland, Australia
SURVIVING NATURAL DISASTERS – A paradigm shift in the design of hydraulic infrastructures
The world is changing, not only its climate! Most recent studies agree that the future will experience more frequent and severe hazards, including natural and man-induced floods, droughts, extreme storms, dam-break waves and tsunamis. In Switzerland, a report from the Federal Council showed that increasing temperatures will be responsible for more violent and unpredictable storms, harmful not only to people, but also to critical infrastructure and energy production. In addition, a warmer climate will favour the melting of mountain glaciers, generating supplementary resources for the achievement of the Energy Strategy 2050. These will be associated with an increasing risk of impulse waves in alpine lakes and dam reservoirs, with potential damages to both people and the environment.
Such catastrophic events can no longer be considered too rare to be relevant and actions must be undertaken to guarantee safety, mitigate damage and reduce reconstruction costs. In parallel, today’s race toward a more sustainable exploitation of resources challenges the classical hydraulic design, requiring a paradigm shift toward a multi-hazard approach with transdisciplinary nature-based solutions. Thus, the issue of resilience of water infrastructure is of primordial importance, and mitigation measures should be promptly identified and implemented. In this context, this seminar initially focuses on the repercussions of highly unsteady flows on infrastructure. More specifically, the effect of structural openings on the hydrodynamic load is addressed both experimentally and numerically. Results showed that a more comprehensive understanding of these phenomena and their driving mechanism is essential to develop innovative solutions to improve design guidelines. Secondly, this seminar presents additional challenges associated with extreme floods, including air-entrainment, the effect of driftwood accumulation and associated structural loading. This reveals that a combination of innovative research, quality education and interdisciplinary collaborations is the only approach to successfully overcome the challenges that current and future infrastructures are facing.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Organizer
- ENAC
Contact
- Cristina Perez