Workshop 01

Robert will introduce the problem on the board in class. Once the solution is posted there will be links for the problem description.

An interactive notebook page can be found at teachbooks.github.io/HOS-workbook/2024/workshop/01. You can also download the notebook and use it locally.

Since this assignment will not be turned in, you are free to record your answers (or not) however you like. At the very least you should explain your answers to a colleague (your group members) orally using illustrations and calculations as needed. Each group member should try to do this individually (good practice for the oral exam!).

Questions:

Part 1, Functional response of the system (deterministic):

  1. Identify the main physical processes that are at play in this problem, and get familiar with the equations available to describe them.
  2. Write an equation (on paper) to define failure of the dike. You can use the code provided to check your answer.
  3. Now that you have an equation, identify which parameters have a positive or negative effect on the performance of the dike (hint: check the partial derivatives!)
  4. Which environmental variable governs the dike design in this situation? Wave height or wind setup?

Part 2, Uncertainty in the system (continuous parametric distributions!):

  1. Define the distributions of each random variable using scipy.stats and get familiar with their characteristics
  2. Which random variables have the most significant variability?
  3. Identify how each random variable influences the equations defined in the deterministic part above.
  4. Which random variable do you think will govern the dike design in this situation?

Part 3: Assessing the system:

  1. Using the Python functions provided, identify conditions where the dike (in its “current” form) is unsafe (using deterministic values only). Describe these critical conditions using a few values and figures.
  2. Compute the probability that dike is unsafe. Does it meet the safety criteria?

Part 4: Designing a better system:

  1. Reconsider the deterministic and random variables and identify if and how each of them could be changed to improve the system. You should be able to think of explicit examples for what you can do in “real life” and explain the quantitative effect on each variable. For the random variables, you should explicitly consider whether you can influence one of three things: the mean, standard deviation or type of distribution. You should also explain whether a measure is practical. For example: making the inlet more shallow by placing dredge spoils in it would reduce the mean value of water depth and would impact the runup height by … … …; however, this is probably very expensive and not a very practical idea!
  2. Make a recommendation for how you can improve the system to meet the safety criteria. Explain the quantitative effect on the system (as described above) and provide quantitative confirmation that in these conditions the dike is safe.