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Kathy Frizell - Web Index Page

Here is a list of links to my personal web documents.

Concrete step overlay protection for embankment dams. Studies were completed in Reclamation's Hydraulic Investigations and Laboratory Services Group as well as tests performed in a large-scale, outdoor overtopping facility at CSU. The 1.5-m-wide, 15-m-high outdoor test facility subjected tapered blocks to unit discharges as high as 3.2 CMS/M, figure 4. The 35-cm-long by 5-cm-high by 60-cm-wide blocks are placed in an overlapping pattern on filter material. The blocks are designed to aspirate water from the filter layer through small drainage slots formed in each block. The block shapes developed through these studies are effective for a range of embankment slopes.  Additional, studies have resulted in a general description of flow over stepped spillways with a 2:1 slope.  The design of stepped spillways on a 2:1 slope can be accomplished using the online documentation.

The same large-scale outdoor facility was used to study riprap protection for embankment subject to overtopping or sheet flow. Riprap design criteria have been developed and are also located online.

Grand Coulee Dam, on the upper Columbia River was completed in 1942 with the addition of the Third Powerplant completed in 1979.  The dam has a hydraulic height of 350 ft with a wide gated spillway and two tiers of outlet conduits that all discharge into a submerged roller bucket spillway.  The listing of endangered species and water quality concerns throughout the basin, prompted Reclamation to initiate a Gas Management Program to deal with total dissolved gas (TDG) issues at Grand Coulee Dam.  It is Reclamation's mission to operate facilities in an enviromentally sound and cost effective manner.   Therefore, operational and structural alternatives were investigated to deal with the issue of TDG generation at Grand Coulee Dam during periods of spills.  Structural alternatives  were studied and determined to not be very cost effective.  Several operational alternatives  have been implemented to provide some relief from production of high TDG levels during times of small spills from the dam.


Kathy Frizell
Hydraulic Engineer
Hydraulic Investigations and Laboratory Services Group
Bureau of Reclamation Denver, Colorado.
(303) 445-2144

Last reviewed: 01/10/05