Fall 2022 Structural Behavior of Dams

Registration Closed

Bruce Brand’s “Structural Behavior of Dams” is a 3-day course on Dam Engineering. It is at the same time very theoretical and very practical. Theory is presented and then applied to real-world dam engineering situations.

Bruce originally developed the course for FERC engineers, but now is offering it to the dam engineering community. The target audience is experienced engineers, it would not be appropriate for novices. Classes are small; no more than 12 students.

Eligible for 24 PDHs

Topics

Beam Theory with an emphasis on geometric non-linearities

Safety Factor

Loads on Dams

Steady State Hydrodynamic

Uplift

Lateral Earth

Debris

Follower Forces

Seismic Loads

Analysis Methods

FEA Background

Dynamics

Classical

Explicit

Surge Tank Example

Wave Radiating Boundaries

Fracture Mechanics

Rock Mechanics

Case Histories

Arch Dams

Gravity Arches

Slab and Buttress Topics

In addition to instruction, Bruce provides the following software:

2DSTAB Gravity Dam Analysis

TGRIB Taintergate Analysis

VF2D 2 Dim. Non-Linear FEA

ARVAR 3 Dim. Non-linear FEA

DAMGEN Gravity Dam Mesh Generator

ARCHMKR Arch Dam Mesh Generator

Travel Information: https://www.ussdams.org/confer...

Bruce Brand

Senior Civil/Structural Engineer

Hetrodyne Engineering

Mr. Brand is a Dam Engineering Consultant. Prior to 2018 Bruce served as a senior Structural engineer for the dam safety program of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. In that capacity, he developed FERC Engineering Guidelines for the evaluation of Concrete dams. He has also developed much of the FERC's engineering software, including several non-linear finite element codes, both static and dynamic. With respect to spillway gates, he was instrumental in the development of the FERC Taintergate Initiative. From 1981-1992 Mr. Brand was the structural Designer & Team Leader for the St. Paul District of the US Army Corps of Engineers. In that capacity, he performed structural design on a wide variety of Dam on other water resource structures.

B.S., Mathematics, 1979 St. Johns University

B.S., Civil Engineering, 1980, University of Minnesota

M.S.,Civil Engineering, 1981, University of Minnesota

Bruce is a Husband, Father of 3, Student of the Bible (especially the Old Testament), Guitarist/singer/songwriter, Mathematician, Electronic circuit designer, Welder, Plumber, Minnesota Vikings fan.