From the course: Practical Engineering

Unlock this course with a free trial

Join today to access over 22,400 courses taught by industry experts.

Hydraulic river modeling

Hydraulic river modeling

- From the 1940's to the 1960's, the US Army Corp of Engineers built a scale model of the entire Mississippi River Basin, a huge part of the continental United States scaled down to the size of a large park. Their goal was to understand how flooding affected communities along the river and how damage could be reduced through the use of manmade structures like levies. Now, surrounded by Buddy Bud's Park outside Jackson, Mississippi, you can still go visit the tiny engineers who live and work there. Actually, the model was only used for a few years before it was decommissioned. It simply wasn't feasible to continue operating such a massive facility, especially because in the 1970's, another way to simulate river hydraulics started to become available. (soft music) I'm Grady, and this is practical engineering. In today's video, we're talking about computational hydraulic river modeling. (upbeat music) Computational, because it's on a computer as opposed to a physical model like the one…

Contents