Yes / Understanding of the characteristics of dam-break flows moving along a sloping wet bed can help to timely issue flood warning and risk mitigation. In this study, laboratory experiments are carried out in a large flume for a wide range of upstream water depth, bed slopes and tailwater depth. The water level is recorded and processed to calculate the mean velocity and wave celerity. Results show that the increase of the bed slope will significantly accelerate the wave-front celerity for the downstream dry bed, while the negative wave celerity will decrease. When water depth ratio α ≥ 0.3 (defined as the ratio of initial downstream water depth over the upstream water depth of dam), there are extra negative waves propagating towards the reservoir area after the flow has developed for a period of time. When α ≥ 0.6, there are the Favre waves propagating downstream. The water level and the mean velocity fluctuate due to the influence of the extra negative waves and the Favre waves. Such fluctuant frequency increases with the increase of the water depth ratio. The empirical formulas are obtained for the celerity of the first extra negative wave and the first downstream wave. The variation of wave-front height is very similar under three bed slopes investigated in this study, while the maximum wave-front height occurs when α = 0.2. The present study broadens the understanding of the effects of the bed slope and the tailwater level on the movement of the dam-break flows. Furthermore, experimental results are also compared with some analytical solutions. The validity of the assumptions made during the development of these analytical solutions and their limitations are discussed by comparing with the experimental measurements. / The National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No: 51879179), the Open Fund from the State Key Laboratory of Hydraulics and Mountain River Engineering, Sichuan University (SKHL1809) and Sichuan Science and Technology Program (No. 2019JDTD0007).

Yes / The bed slope and the tailwater depth are two important ones among the factors that affect the propagation of the dam-break flood and Favre waves. Most previous studies have only focused on the macroscopic characteristics of the dam-break flows or Favre waves under the condition of horizontal bed, rather than the internal movement characteristics in sloped channel. The present study applies two numerical models, namely, large eddy simulation (LES) and shallow water equations (SWEs) models embedded in the CFD software package FLOW-3D to analyze the internal movement characteristics of the dam-break flows and Favre waves, such as water level, the velocity distribution, the fluid particles acceleration and the bed shear stress, under the different bed slopes and water depth ratios. The results under the conditions considered in this study show that there is a flow state transition in the flow evolution for the steep bed slope even in water depth ratio α = 0.1 (α is the ratio of the tailwater depth to the reservoir water depth). The flow state transition shows that the wavefront changes from a breaking state to undular. Such flow transition is not observed for the horizontal slope and mild bed slope. The existence of the Favre waves leads to a significant increase of the vertical velocity and the vertical acceleration. In this situation, the SWEs model has poor prediction. Analysis reveals that the variation of the maximum bed shear stress is affected by both the bed slope and tailwater depth. Under the same bed slope (e.g., S0 = 0.02), the maximum bed shear stress position develops downstream of the dam when α = 0.1, while it develops towards the end of the reservoir when α = 0.7. For the same water depth ratio (e.g., α = 0.7), the maximum bed shear stress position always locates within the reservoir at S0 = 0.02, while it appears in the downstream of the dam for S0 = 0 and 0.003 after the flow evolves for a while. The comparison between the numerical simulation and experimental measurements shows that the LES model can predict the internal movement characteristics with satisfactory accuracy. This study improves the understanding of the effect of both the bed slope and the tailwater depth on the internal movement characteristics of the dam-break flows and Favre waves, which also provides a valuable reference for determining the flood embankment height and designing the channel bed anti-scouring facility. / National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No: 51879179, 52079081), the Open Fund from the State Key Laboratory of Hydraulics and Mountain River Engineering, Sichuan University (SKHL1809) and the Sichuan Science and Technology Program (No. 2019JDTD0007)