DRAFT
STANDARDIZED TESTING PROTOCOL FOR EVALUATION OF
EXPEDIENT FLOODFIGHT STRUCTURES
By
Dr. Johannes Wibowo, Robert Carver, Perry Taylor, & Dr. Donald Ward
1.0 Introduction
The primary purpose for developing this protocol is to test and evaluate the effectiveness
of various types of expedient flood-fighting devices. Vendors of a wide range of
commercial expedient structures are competing for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
emergency flood-fighting funds. These structures vary widely in form and function. For
the most part, the only technical literature available on the products comes from the
vendors themselves. Few vendors have tested their products at established laboratories;
the majority bases their performance expectations on results of their own testing. Some
vendors promote products that are conceptual or in prototype development stage only.
Financial decision-makers within Federal, State, and Local government agencies
responsible for flood fighting are the primary targets-of-opportunity for these vendors.
The fundamental problem faced by these decision-makers is that they have no basis for
substantiation of the claims made by these vendors. A Standardized Testing Protocol
(STP) developed, administered, and executed by the US Army Corps of Engineers,
Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) laboratories is a logical and
necessary tool for providing unbiased, objective technical performance data. In order to
participate in the testing program, the vendors of the various products will supply
funding, materials, equipment and labor to assemble their systems in accordance with the
STP, and in accordance with a Testing Services Agreement (TSA) to be executed
between each vendor and ERDC.
The STP focuses on configuring expedient structures as a wall or impoundment within
one of the Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory's Wave Basins (Attachment 1). Several
key performance factors will be evaluated using STP guidelines. Structures will be
subjected to hydrostatic loads, wave-induced dynamic loads, impact loads and
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