Derivation of Dam Failure Empirical Equations for Landslide Dam

Under the condition of overtopping or discharging through a prefabricated channel, the author had conducted a series of dam failure experiments of single landslide dam and two cascade landslide dams before the work of this paper. That includes single dam break by overtopping, single dam failure from a prefabricated discharging channel, cascade dams failure cases. In this paper the dam break process of single dam and each dam in the cascade dams were dissected and analyzed on the basis of previous experimental work. Two empirical equations for the relationship between dam break time items and dam height items were deduced under two different dam failure conditions. This had certain reference value for the early warning of dam break. Using those two equations, the total time needed of the dam-break process can be calculated, then level of the present dam failure stage can be evaluated, which possesses instructive effect to get rid of the danger of landslide dam breaking.