1 Introduction
Purpose and Philosophy
SAM is an integrated system of programs developed through the Flood
Damage Reduction and Stream Restoration Research Program to aid engineers in
analyses associated with designing, operating, and maintaining flood control
channels and stream restoration projects. The package was designed primarily to
satisfy the need for qualitative, easy-to-use methodology, especially for use in
preliminary screening of alternatives where funds for more extensive
investigations are not available.
The SAM package, designed to run on PC computers, is intended to be used
primarily as an aid in the design of stable channels. In the past, the design of a
stable channel has focused on the erosion process (Simons and Senturk, 1977,
and ASCE, 1975). However, erosion is only one of the five fundamental
processes--erosion, entrainment, transportation, deposition and compaction--in
sedimentation. SAM provides the computational capability to include all these
processes except the compaction of the deposited bed sediments in the design of
stable channels.
The SAM package is designed to provide hydraulic engineers smooth
transition from making hydraulic calculations to calculating sediment transport
capacity to making sediment yield determinations. The three main modules of
the package can be used in series, as described, or their separate capabilities
utilized to aid in various hydraulic design situations. SAM.hyd calculates the
width, depth, slope and n-values for stable channels in alluvial material.
SAM.sed calculates sediment transport capacity according to a wide range of
sediment transport functions, usually using the hydraulic parameters calculated in
SAM.hyd. SED.yld uses the sediment transport capacity calculated in SAM.sed
to calculate the sediment yield. Channel stability can then be evaluated in terms
of the cost of maintaining the constructed channel.
1
Chapter 1
Introduction
Previous Page
