Experimental characterization of bed evolution and water surface elevation by consecutive dam-breaks using Kinect device

Extreme phenomena such as dam-break flows are of great interest in hydraulic engineering due to their destructive power. Dam-break waves can cause severe morphological damage to channels and erodible beds through high-velocity water flows. Numerical models of unsteady erodible shallow flow must be properly validated to become reliable predictive tools. In this work, a novel set of laboratory experiments is presented in which bed evolution and water surface elevation are measured in a 2D flume subjected to consecutive dam-break flows. The experiments were conducted for various geometries and obstacle configurations. Bedform dynamics were measured using an RGB-D camera sensor over the experimental region. The results show that bedload transport rates are strongly influenced by flume geometry and flow conditions. These results provide valuable insights into bedload transport dynamics during dam-break flows and can be used to improve the design of numerical models for erosive shallow water simulations.