Reclamation’s Hydraulic Laboratory - Key to the Design of Hoover Dam Philip H. Burgi1, D.WRE, Hon. M. ASCE 1Retired Manager, Bureau of Reclamation’s Hydraulic Laboratory and Founding Member Environmental & Water Resources Institute, 3940 Dover St. Wheat Ridge, CO 80033; philipburgi@aol.com
ABSTRACT: Hydraulic investigations for the unprecedented size and scope of the proposed Hoover Dam (also called Boulder Dam) started in 1930 with a small core of Bureau of Reclamation engineers and technicians assigned to the hydraulic laboratory of the Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station in Fort Collins, Colorado. This presentation will summarize the hydraulic investigations and their impact on the Hoover Dam design as well as some of the field challenges associated with the construction and operation of Hoover Dam. The salient results of the initial spillway and outlet works model studies conducted at various venues, model scales, and with several design options will be reviewed. More recent hydraulic studies will be presented of the penstock tie rods, intake tower cylinder gate performance, replacement of the internal differential needle valves, and repair and solution for cavitation damage in the elbow of the spillway tunnels. The hydraulic investigations related to the design and performance of Hoover Dam have produced standards and criteria have significantly affected the world-wide knowledge base for today’s hydraulic structure design. The design, experimental investigations that lead to construction of Hoover Dam pushed the science of hydraulics to new frontiers.
