IMPACT: The Project Team

The Université catholique de Louvain (UCL) was founded in 1425. With a community of 19900 students (3600 of them come from foreign countries), this is the most populated French-speaking University in Belgium. The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering belongs to the Faculty of Applied Sciences (Engineering) which is one of the ten Faculties of the University.

Basic research carried out by the Hydraulics group is centred on floods and flood control. Inside this field, hydraulic problems related to urban development and river engineering are treated in both their hydraulics and sedimentology aspects.
In fluvial hydraulics, several domains related to flood control are studied: flood forecasting, stochastic simulation, physical and mathematical modelling of fast hydraulic transients (flash floods, dam break), compound channel flow, etc. Various PhD theses were completed on those topics, others are currently in progress.

A large expertise was developed in 1D and 2D numerical modelling, covering hydrodynamics, sediment transport and morphological evolution. The hydraulic laboratory is well equipped for hydraulic and geomorphological experiments: three devices are devoted to fluvial hydraulics (a canal 32 m long and 3.2 m wide, a tilting canal with compound sections 10 m long and 1.2 m wide, and a tilting flume 7.5 m long and 0.5 m wide for sedimentological studies). For experimental measurement, digital imaging techniques were developed.
The hydraulics Unit is also involved in several projects, dealing with fluvial hydrodynamics and sediment transport :

• Meuse watershed : participation to the preparation of an integrated Meuse Basin model for flood forecasting ,
  
  
• Meuse River : flood propagation on the Upper Meuse, and between Ampsin-Neuville and Yvoz-Ramet,
  
  
• Sambre River : flow study in two reaches during flood events,
  
  
• Ichilo-Mamore River (Amazon tributary, Bolivia) : morphological evolution study of Ichilo River near the harbour project of Mamorecillo and of Mamore River at Trinidad and Guyaramerin.
  

Born on September 5th, 1946 at Uccle, Belgium. Professor at the Civil Engineering Department (since 1977), Visiting Professor at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (since 1995).

Education comprises a B.Civ.Engrg, UCL (1970); M.Engrg, University of Sherbrooke, Canada (1975). His principal research areas are urban and fluvial hydraulics, flood modelling (fast transients and dam break waves), flood control and river morphology modelling. Publications from 1997-2002 include 12 international journal papers (2 accepted) and 27 communications in international conference proceedings.

He was actively involved in the EU CADAM concerted action as Steering Group member and as ditor of the CD-ROM " Concerted Action on Dambreak Modelling : Objectives, Project Report, Test Cases, Meeting Proceedings" published at the end of the CADAM concerted action. Within the IMPACT project, he is leader of the "Sediment movement" Theme.

Born on December 16th, 1973, Belgium. As a Research Fellow funded by FNRS (National Fund for Scientific Research), she achieved her PhD "Dam-break induced flows in complex topographies - Theoretical, numerical and experimental approaches" in February 2002. She actively participated in the EU - CADAM concerted action (1998 - 2000) by the production of benchmarks, the analysis and comparison of numerical and experimental results. She was the editor of the CD-ROM " Concerted Action on Dambreak Modelling : Objectives, Project Report, Test Cases, Meeting Proceedings" published at the end of the CADAM concerted action.

Current research still concerns severe transient flows and dam-break flows in natural rivers with complex topography, but also extends to sediment movement and dam-breaching. Numerical modelling is carried out as well as experimental work, in the UCL laboratory for the idealised cases or on other experimental facilities (Chatelet - Belgium).

Her involvement in the IMPACT project concerns the "Flood propagation" and "Sediment movement" themes. Publications include 2 journal papers (1 accepted) and 11 communications in international conference proceedings.

Born on November 2nd, 1974, Belgium. After graduating B.Civ.Engrg at UCL in 1998, he spent one year as a research assistant and lecturer at the International Institute for Infrastructural, Hydraulic, and Environmental Engineering (IHE), Delft, The Netherlands: his work focused on large-scale river morphology and applications of remote sensing and digital-imaging techniques for river engineering. Back to Belgium, he is still guest lecturer at IHE-Delft for exercises related to river dynamics and lectures on remote sensing applications.

From 1999-2001, he spent two years in Belgium on a project funded by the local Government, on the development of digital imaging techniques for the experimental characterisation of fast transient liquid/granular flows: dam-break waves over loose granular beds, debris flows, fluidised beds, etc. Since November 2001, he is now Research Fellow funded by the FRIA (National Fund for Research in Industry and Agriculture).

His involvement in the IMPACT project is related to his current PhD thesis "Characterisation of the behaviour of a two-phase liquid / granular medium (water / sediments) in case of severe transient flows, accounting for the strong rheological coupling between the two phases and for the vertical components of the movement", and focuses on fast transients involving a mixture of water and sediments, in a two-phase flow description: dam-breaks and/or dike-breachings, bank failures, etc. Publications since 2000 include 1 journal paper (provisionally accepted) and 6 communications in international conference proceedings.

Born on December 6th, 1977, Belgium. In 2001, he achieved a B. Civ. Engrg at UCL. His B Eng Thesis concerned the dam-break induced morphologic evolution of a channel, using both numerical and experimental approaches. From August 2001 to March 2002, he worked as research assistant on a risk assessment study concerning the flood propagation after the failure of hydraulic structures, in collaboration with the MET (Ministry of Equipment and Transportation). Funded by the IMPACT project, he now started a PhD related to the "Sediment Movement" Theme, with the particular aim of studying far field dam-break flow processes.

Born on January 14th, 1979, Belgium. In 2002, he achieved a B. Civ. Engrg at UCL. His B. Eng. Thesis concerned flow instabilities in sewer pipes, using theoretical, numerical and experimental approaches. Funded by the IMPACT project, he is working on the "Flood Propagation" theme area (WP3). In this work package, his work consists in the production of experimental data for the UCL benchmarks (the building test case and the triangular bottom sill), and in the analysis and comparison of experimental and numerical results from the participants to these benchmarks. He will also participate in the validation of the UCL numerical model against the other benchmarks foreseen in the WP3 work package.