Jacob H.
of computer modeling. How effective and helpful was computer modeling for you?
Would you have preferred to stay with actual building of the model?
I never got involved in computer modeling. I think that sufficient hydraulic modeling data
became available for effective use in computer modeling. Formulas are developed, based
on the hydraulic model data, which when used in the computer, reproduces the hydraulic
model results.
So, basically, the computer was only sort of programmed with the data that came out of
the hydraulic model, and it was done in WES or somewhere else?
Yes, hydraulic model or field data. In some cases, computer modeling is used to solve
fluid dynamics or other theoretical equations. Most computer modeling was done at WES.
Now, I was looking at something last night, Margaret Petersen's book on river
engineering, and she was mentioning that there is a distortion between the model and the
reality. There's a reliability problem. Where does that come from, just the natural fact
of trying to record these data elements on a small model versus the large actual thing?
Well, I think that's what she was talking about. A very small model has a distortion
effect. For example, let's consider the determination of water levels for a certain
discharge in a river channel. Water surface elevations measured in a small-scale model
would not be the same as measured in a large-scale model because the model roughness
factor cannot be simulated as well in the small-scale model as in the large-scale model.
That is called the distortion factor.
So really a lot of it has to do with the scale of the model you're using
That's right.
Impact of New Technology
Q ..
I know we touched on this, but what other technologies or new technologies and
methodologies were introduced while you were at the Corps that significantly affected the
way you did hydraulic engineering?
A:
Technology--instead of using textbooks and theoretical equations, you
New technologies
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