- Branche: Government
- Number of terms: 15655
- Number of blossaries: 0
- Company Profile:
A U.S. Department of the Interior agency that oversees water resource management incuding the oversight and operation of numerous diversion, delivery, and storage projects the agency has built throughout the western United States for irrigation, water supply, and attendant hydroelectric power ...
The hydraulic grade line lies below the energy grade line by an amount equal to the velocity head at the section. The two lines are parallel for all sections of equal cross sectional area. The distance between the pipe centerline and the hydraulic grade line is the pressure head, or piezometric height, at the section. The line showing the pressure head, or piezometric height, at any point in a pipe. The slope of the hydraulic grade line is known as the hydraulic gradient. The hydraulic gradient is the slope of the water surface in an open channel.
Industry:Engineering
A utility that is owned and operated by a city. In most cases, municipal utility rates are set at the city level, either by the municipal administration or by a local utility board or commission. In some limited circumstances, state-level regulation applies. Municipal utilities often have access to low-cost power from federal hydroelectric projects and can obtain low interest loans, and they are exempt from income and other taxes at the federal and state levels. These factors contribute to lower financing costs for plant and equipment. Municipal utilities serve roughly 14 percent of the nation's electric customers.
Industry:Engineering
Federal legislation, enacted in 1935, which regulates the corporate structure and financial operations of certain utility holding companies. PUHCA was intended to simplify the holding company structure and to require holding companies and their subsidiaries to form a single integrated utility system where possible. But for all practical purposes, PUHCA today imposes significant regulatory restrictions on the 11 electric utility holding company systems which are registered because they operate in more than two states and are subject to the restrictions of PUHCA. Such restrictions do not apply to their competitors.
Industry:Engineering
The thickness or width of a dam at the level of the top of dam (excluding corbels or parapets). In general, the term thickness is used for gravity and arch dams, and width is used for other dams.
Industry:Engineering
Flow in which the head loss is proportional to the first power of the velocity. The flow field can be characterized by layers of fluid, one layer not mixing with adjacent ones. The flow is laminar or turbulent depending on the value of the Reynolds number, which is a dimensionless ratio of the inertial forces to the viscous forces. In laminar flow, viscous forces are dominant and the Reynolds number is relatively small. In turbulent flow, the inertial forces are very much greater than the viscous forces and the Reynolds number is large. Laminar flow occurs very infrequently in open channel flow.
Industry:Engineering
The largest hypothetical earthquake that may be reasonably expected to occur along a given fault or other seismic source could produce under the current tectonic setting. It is a believable event which can be supported by all known geologic and seismologic data. A hypothetical earthquake is deterministic if its fault or source area is spatially definable and can be located a particular distance from the dam under consideration. A hypothetical earthquake is probabilistic if it is considered to be a random event, and its epicentral distance is determined mathematically by relationships of recurrence and magnitude for some given area. The MCE can be associated with specific surface geologic structures and can also be associated with random or floating earthquakes (movements that occur at depths that do not cause surface displacements). The seismic evaluation criteria determines which faults or seismic sources are assigned an MCE. The most severe earthquake that can be expected to occur at a given site on the basis of geologic and seismological evidence. The severest earthquake that is believed to be possible at the site on the basis of geologic and seismological evidence. It is determined by regional and local studies that include a complete review of all historic earthquake data of events sufficiently nearby to influence the project, all faults in the area, and attenuations from causative faults to the site. The earthquake associated with specific seismotectonic structures, source areas, or provinces that would cause the most servere vibratory ground motion or foundation dislocation capable of being produced at the site under the currently known tectonic framework.
Industry:Engineering
The ratio of the volume of void space to the total volume of an undisturbed sample. A measure of the ratio of open space within a rock or soil to its total volume. A nondimensional value that expresses the ratio of the volume of pores to the total volume of a porous material and is usually expressed as a percentage. Porosity ranges from less than 1 percent to as much as 80 percent in some recently deposited clays, but in most granular materials it falls between about 5 and 40 percent. In free aquifers the porosity is equal to the specific retention plus the specific yield. The capacity of soil or rock to hold water.
Industry:Engineering
That part of the valley wall against which the dam is constructed. The part of a dam that contacts the riverbank. A structure that supports the ends of a dam or bridge. An artificial abutment is sometimes constructed, as a concrete gravity section, to take the thrust of an arch dam where there is no suitable natural abutment. Action or place of abutting; the part of a structure that is the terminal point or receives thrust or pressure. Defined in terms of left and right as looking away from the reservoir, looking downstream (i.e., left abutment, right abutment).
Industry:Engineering
Movement of a soil mass downward along a slope because of a slope angle too great to support the soil, wetness reducing internal friction among particles, or seismic activity. It is also called a slope failure, usually a rather shallow failure. A wet place of deep mud or mire, or a temporary or permanent lake; ordinarily found on or at the edge of the flood plain or a river. Also refers to a creek or sluggish body of water in a bottomland.
Industry:Engineering
The largest flood that may reasonably be expected to occur at a given point on a stream from the most severe combination of critical meteorologic and hydrologic conditions that are reasonably possible on a particular watershed. This term identifies estimates of hypothetical flood characteristics (peak discharge, volume, and hydrograph shape) that are considered to be the most severe "reasonably possible" at a particular location, based on relatively comprehensive hydrometeorological analyses of critical runoff-producing precipitation (and snowmelt, if pertinent) and hydrologic factors favorable for maximum flood runoff. The maximum runoff condition resulting from the most severe combination of hydrologic and meteorologic conditions that are considered reasonably possible for the drainage basin under study.
Industry:Engineering
