Skip to main content

TRITON Ensemble Simulations for Dam-Break Flood Modeling: Taum Sauk and Sanford Dams

    Shivakumar Balachandran | University of South Carolina
    Sudershan Gangrade | Oak Ridge National Laboratory
    Ganesh R. Ghimire | Oak Ridge National Laboratory
    Shih-Chieh Kao | Oak Ridge National Laboratory
    Jasim Imran | University of South Carolina
Download Dataset on Globus

Description

This dataset provides ensemble two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of dam-break floods generated using the Two-dimensional Runoff Inundation Toolkit for Operational Needs (TRITON). The dataset contains: - Supporting Python code for dependence-preserving sampling - A spreadsheet containing 100 sampled breach-parameter pairs - 100 TRITON simulations for the Taum Sauk Dam case study - 100 TRITON simulations for the Sanford Dam case study The dataset is intended for dam-break flood modeling and benchmarking, uncertainty analysis, probabilistic flood-hazard assessment, method development, and related hydrodynamic studies. Two failure mechanisms are represented: - Taum Sauk Dam, Missouri (2005): instantaneous dam failure - Sanford Dam, Michigan (2020): gradual overtopping failure with delayed peak discharge The ensemble consists of 100 paired values of breach width and non-dimensional reservoir water level. These samples were generated using a bivariate Gaussian copula to preserve dependence between the two variables. The fitted dependence structure was developed from 69 historical dam-failure records reported by Azmi and Thomson (2024). The historical dam-failure data are not redistributed as part of this dataset. Hydrodynamic simulations were performed using TRITON, an open-source, GPU-accelerated two-dimensional hydrodynamic model. The simulations use a 10 m computational grid and a uniform Manning’s roughness coefficient of 0.035. The released dataset includes GeoTIFF outputs for the TRITON variables 'H', 'MH', 'QX', and 'QY'. - 'taumsauk/' contains 100 instantaneous dam-break simulations for the Taum Sauk Upper Reservoir case study. Each run contains 120 GeoTIFF outputs per variable. - 'sanford/' contains 100 gradual overtopping dam-break simulations for the Sanford Dam case study. Each run contains 200 GeoTIFF outputs per variable. - 'sampling_code/' contains the sampling script and '100_Samples.xlsx', the spreadsheet of sampled breach-parameter pairs. Coordinate reference systems: - Sanford: EPSG:32616 - Taum Sauk: EPSG:32615 Validation and observational datasets are not redistributed as part of this dataset. The validation methodology, data sources, and model-performance results are documented in the associated study and cited references.

Funding Information

DOE Contract Number

DE-AC05-00OR22725

Originating Research Organization

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization

Department of Energy (DOE) Hydropower and Hydrokinetic Office

Project Identifier

CLI190; ATM112

Details

Release Date

September 21, 2026

Dataset

Dataset Type

ND Numeric Data

Cite This Dataset:

Balachandran, S., Gangrade, S., Ghimire, G., Kao, S., Imran, J. (2026). TRITON Ensemble Simulations for Dam-Break Flood Modeling: Taum Sauk and Sanford Dams. Oak Ridge National Laboratory. https://doi.org/10.13139/OLCF/3408140.

Acknowledgements

This research used resources of the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is supported by the Advanced Scientific Computing Research programs in the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725.