I was told a story years ago about a farmer who finally got around to pulling out an old tree stump…and then his nearby pond dried up. For a couple hundred years those tree roots were all that had been diverting groundwater to keep the nearby pond filled. Ground water hydrology is fascinating.
@@LeviForWaifu That assumes the tree was dead for hundreds of years. Tree could have been alive for a long time then died more recently, and eventually the stump was removed. I will say though, it does feel a bit hard to determine that a particular tree was the sole reason for a pond existing for hundreds of years.
@@LeviForWaifu Not necessarily. For instance the wooden pilings that were put down in the 1200s to the 1500s continue to hold up the buildings of Venice. I cannot remember which English cathedral needed repair to one corner of its pilings,but that was done around WWI. They too were put down in the medieval era, and the remaining pilings were seen to be sound. There are peat bogs where the original plants at the deepest ,date from the retreat of the glaciers and are quite identifiable. And that is what,12 to 15 thousand years ago.
Grady, I just want you to know that I've been watching your channel for years but I was able to put one of your videos to practical use yesterday. My grandmother (who grew up one of 8 kids on a tobacco farm in Rockingham, NC) had seen both water towers and grain bins all her 88 years but never known what they do/are for, since on her farm they used a well and drying sheds. Out of nowhere she asked me that while we were driving. I was able to mostly explain it to her because of your video on water towers and Destin's video on "Smarter Every Day" about grain bins. When we got to the house, I showed her both videos. I wouldn't have been able to answer her without you guys so I'm thanking you both.
Living in the Netherlands, water, and especially groundwater, is a massive part of life around here. It's good to finally learn how we control all that when building anything a meter below sea level.
I imagine ground water is not just an important but a somewhat terrifying matter when a good part of your country is at permanent risk from the ocean, rain, adverse weather, and pretty much all water on top of it.
Same is true in the state of Florida. You take about one meter you will hit water. Plus we have sinkholes. It's similar to building on top of a large brick of Swiss cheese.
@@EnlightenedSavage yeah one thing I noticed when I have visited Florida is just how many wells there are. I figured it must have been easy to hit water because just about every lawn sprinkler has a well.
@@Voltaic_Fire Not really, to be honest. Flood insurance, for example, is just not a thing here. Our water management infrastructure is so omnipresent and so fundamentally integrated into every level of life that we just don't think about it anymore. There's even a level of government which is equal to but distinct from the province level called the watersheds. So 'It's taken care of' is the mindset most of us have.
@@MrBlueBurd0451 I have seen your water management infrastructure, it really is impressive, but I'm a worrier so I do not think I could adopt the same mentality.
I'm a geotechnical engineer (the field of engineering that designs dams) and I can say that, while extremely simplified, the presentation of engineering concepts in the video is very accurate.
Hi, I need your help. We are going to construct a 10 story building which is designed to sit on a raft. But the raft is also gonna sit on a 3m thick layer of hardcore. But we have big problem with ground water as it overflows even the hardcore we have laid. What could be the permanent solution to curb this ground water? Thanks
Remember that the Lord Jesus Christ died on a cross for you because He loves you so much. He then rose up from the dead three days later The Ten Commandments are called the moral law, (most of us are lying thieving blasphemous adulterer at heart and deserve hell) you and I broke the law, Jesus paid the fine. That’s what happened on that cross. By believing that Jesus died on the cross and rose up from the dead 3 days later and not just confessing your sin, but also repenting of all sin you have done and putting all your trust in Him in prayer, He will grant you everlasting life as a free Gift
this definitely explains why, after resolving water management issues at my house, it only took a few months for water to find its way back in to the udrain and thereby to the sump.
@@chrisdawson1776 what are you talking about? We're talking about engineering not politics. You're attempt to guess someone's nationality and political affiliations based on absolutely nothing further confirms your ignorance for all to see. I'm sure your next post will just be additional proof of foolishness and immaturity.
Great video, I'm a senior cad tech of 23 years and have done numerous dam inspection, monitoring and removal projects over the years. I usually get all the drilling and survey data and make detailed plans showing all the data. Your video was very well done sir! Just a month ago our survey crew went out to a dam that we had been monitoring for at least 15 years and was recently dewatered. I was shocked that the crest of the earthen dam sunk by a few inches after dewatering lol.
i have very very little formal education but you make these explanation videos so well that i always come out of them with a decent understanding of whatever the topic was when i previously had no understanding of it. a testament to the quality of your work. keep it up!
I know, right. I also like Technology Connections content for the same reason. If you know of any other channels that explain things this well, please let me know. I hope you have a great week!
@@wabash1581 honestly i dont know of anything thats as easily understood and universally applicable as this channel. but i will check out what you recommended
A year or so ago I started working on the administrative side of a firm that does a lot of design and construction involving wells, lift stations, and so on, so these videos have suddenly become much more relevant to my daily life as I encounter the terminology on a regular basis! Thanks for building acrylic models in your basement.
It's insane that he managed to explain something in 14mins that took our tutor two 2hr lectures. I can't believe we're paying 9.25k a year for content that's taught far more effectively on UA-cam.
Companies should change the application process to just a test of the required abilities! Test passed? You're in! Only real advantage i could see is that you managed to pass test and time management while at uni!
@@filippoeich1180 that is not feasible, unless they provide their own training. Theory helps and is a basic requirement but practical understanding will not come easy. You have to be naturally talented toward the subject to circumvent the lack of experience.
I studied chemistry at the local university many years ago. I also found, that I could teach another student in an afternoon, what took other students 2-3 weeks to pick up from lectures and reading a few chapters in a chemistry book. (specifically organic substitution reactions). As I recall, the books used words that didn't really describe the effects of common side groups on the reactions too well. Essentially, the books were written in a way, that meant you had to read them really, really close, more than twice, spending hours on a few pages, trying to figure out what the author is trying to convey.
Remember that the Lord Jesus Christ died on a cross for you because He loves you so much. He then rose up from the dead three days later The Ten Commandments are called the moral law, (most of us are lying thieving blasphemous adulterer at heart and deserve hell) you and I broke the law, Jesus paid the fine. That’s what happened on that cross. By believing that Jesus died on the cross and rose up from the dead 3 days later and not just confessing your sin, but also repenting of all sin you have done and putting all your trust in Him in prayer, He will grant you everlasting life as a free Gift
@dove3853 it's not by definition "free" if you have to do something for it.... no worries I don't expect much from the folks that believe in an all powerful magical sky wizard
I live in a town that apparently used to be a swamp or marshland on top of being in a geological bowl, so we flood almost every storm. it never occurred to me how difficult it would be for a civil engineer in this area. I love your channel cause it helps me notice these things
I was introduced to this concept during flood defense. Turns out it's too expensive to shore up a river with miles of concrete so you have to rely on good solid earth... And when the water level rises too far, any water seeping through is a threat that can only be contained by, not blocking the exit hole, but building a cylinder of sandbags around the exit that allows the water level to rise to the level of the river on the other side, equalizing pressure and stopping flow. It's all so counterintuitive for laypeople!
One of the challenges of a great educator is to simplify concepts and tame complexity while keeping it scientific. You excel at this and manage to make me understand and be fascinated and value all engineering work.
I've never been more glad to live somewhere where there is only 6 inches of soil before you hit rock. It always amazes me to see people digging really deep holes with nothing more than a shovel. If I do anything more than scraping the surface I have to break out the pickaxe or power tools.
haha, we say the same thing here in coastal BC. But there are river valleys, etc where the soil is deeper. I remember trying to dig holes for various things growing up and always hitting massive boulders or at least 100+lb rocks within the first 12".
I live on an ancient lakebed, it's basically several hundred feet of gravel. So diggings frustrating unless you have big equipment. It handles water well though. In spring you can literally see the surrounding hills draining themselves of water after the ground thaws by the trail conditions. The driest areas will be on top first and then spread down.
we have places like that here too. no foundation needed for the houses just to level it. but digging a cellar underground its a nightmare. opposite to that where i live i bet the only rock i find is what we put in there. we have like 50cm of soil which is cultivated in some way, then brown clay for a meter and after that grey clay till the end of the world :D
We've got a huge gravel layer under the first meters of soil. No amount of rain has ever been able to flood the land here, except some underpass that will clear itself within a few hours at worst
...and here I am with our house sitting on the side of a sand hill. Our neighbours to the back have their ground floor at the same level as our 2nd floor, our gardens are separated by a 3.5 metre high and 130+ year old sandstone wall. When our neighbour to the right excavated for a small kids' pool near the back of his garden, a section of that wall collapsed...
I love that acrylic sand water flow demonstration! There are so many little experiment you could do with it. Groundwater is super interesting and I am always trying find ways to tie in fresh water with my classes--now I have another rad application! Thanks!
Hi Grady - Is it possible for you to do a video on the effects of over-pumping ground water for potable municipal water supplies? We live in Florida where the soil is sandy and population has been growing fast. Intuitively - I believe the result has been that the local water table around these “well-fields” gets lowered to a point where organic s in the soil are exposed to oxygen. The organics decompose leading to subsidence, often in residential areas where foundations are not built strong enough to resist pressures. Added to this were development practices where organic fill or “scrapings” were used to level certain areas to create more usable lots. With 5 feet of clean inorganic sand placed on top. I’m speaking from personal experience here documented with subsurface samples and ground penetrating radar studies. The part I am not familiar with has to do with the effect (for potentially miles around) of a lowering of the local water table. Not to mention saltwater intrusion when drilling near the ocean where most of Florida’s population lives. Mostly I’m interested in the more general hydrological engineering considerations as a result of “over pumping” the aquifer. Water is very expensive in Florida for these reasons. Most communities use reclaimed water to lower the pumping demand.
I can definitely add it to my list of ideas for future videos. Subsidence is a widespread consequence of groundwater withdrawals, and some places even have subsidence districts that regulate pumping (e.g. Houston). But the mechanism you described of organic decomp of topsoil isn't one I'm familiar with.
@@PracticalEngineeringChannel I remember from my intro hydrology course the picture of the telephone pole in California that subsided something like 20 ft
Subsidence is caused by the over-pumping of aquifers leading to the pore structures in the soil collapsing. I haven't heard of organic decomposition causing subsidence but if you could link some resources I'd be interested in reading about it. Usually, organic soil has oxygen available for decomposition unless it's a wetland or used to be a wetland and the organic material is deep enough for oxygen not to penetrate.
@@PracticalEngineeringChannel Subsidence due to lowering the water table is an interesting topic for sure. In the area around Gouda in the Netherlands (yes, the same name as the cheese) the groundwater level is extremely high. The soil consists of peat and has a very high organic content. If the water table is lowered, the ground will be exposed to air, and hence the organic matter will rot away almost completely. The desired effect of lowering the water table is completely overturned. The need to pump out water from canals becomes even more important.
If you want an over-the-top case study for Subsidence, check Mexico City. The whole city was originally built on top of a lake, and has (or used to have) a huge sinking rate.
The demonstration really shows how surprisingly well water follows Darcy's law. Having a degree in mathematics I've seen my share of the Laplace operator :-). However, obviously the model will break down for fast flow rates and when the soil starts moving. When a evaluating a construction design, are there some well-established limits for the model validity? How slow should be flow be to trust that the soil stays in place?
Very generally, if soil is moving below a structure, you have bigger problems than the groundwater model :) Soil is confined and unable to move with groundwater except at the surface, so a big part of geotechnical design of subsurface structures involves making sure all seepage exit points are filtered. See also, "exit gradient."
Im not sure if you will see this, but I am a hydrogeologist and use Darcy's Law everyday, as well as some of the modelling softwares shown in the video. The assumption in almost all saturated zone flow modelling is that the rock/soil matrix acts as a static environment inwhich the flows are modelled (ie; no soil seepage). To answer your question about model validity, maximum flow speeds are limited only by your starting paramteres, and of course in theory you could create a physically impossible model using darcys law. However (and this is key), the starting model parameters are almost always sourced from geotechnical and geological studies of the site in question, and are 'sanity checked' against the known hydrogeological setting using a 'base case' model. We dont just use the math when assessing flow speed either, other tools can be used to further validate the model.
Fantastic timing! I'm a CAD tech and currently working on a big hydrogeo study on an LNG project. Puts alot of context to the figures I help draft up when it comes to all things groundwater related.
Great video. As an 'amateur civil engineer' I'm always interested in your work. The demonstrations are great as well. Seeing the dye making turns to get under cutoffs and flowing towards drains really brings the concepts to life. Hope your family is doing well, is your new addition a boy or girl? Best of luck to you all.
Im a Hydrogeologist / Groundwater Engineer, thank you for such a cool visual display of familiar ideas, was a treat. You also explained the basics of the field perfectly, thanks mate.
I love your UA-cam series! Wish it was around when I was a in High School. I think your videos would of really motivated me into exploring a very interesting career. I think your channel is not only interesting, but an excellent educating tool.
The LRT (underground rail line) construction in Ottawa, Ontario had caused a massive sinkhole on a very busy downtown street that swallowed a van that was never recovered.
As a geotechnical PM, I love your videos. My company will be drilling into a 100 foot earthen dam to address seepage issues. I look forward to seeing what solution we can come up with!
My parents have an ingroumd pool and at the deepest point (10ft diving pit) the pool has a hydrostatic valve that lets water into the pool from the ground for basically the same reason, if the hydrostatic pressure is more than the weight of the pool it i could litterally float on the water and break a lot of things. When it is full this isn't a problem but it does need to be drained every couple of years to paint it or do other maintenance and when its empty its a much bigger concern. (One year the valve failed and we lost 3ft of water overnight)
That pressure issue is why decommissioning an in-ground pool requires a breaking of the concrete tub, and not just filling it in and capping with sod. I've seen a few videos where people bought a house and the pool was not disclosed in the sale, only to have it rise up out of the ground during the next wet spring season.
One of the buildings in Cologne near the Rhine river is has a two-level underground car park underneath. During extreme high water of the Rhein river, the garage is automatically flooded to prevent the building from swimming. Same principle as the pool. There's even a rowboat in the garage for the (rare) cases when this happens.
Ive been in construction building things since 1979. Started building pools but after a few years I became an electrician. Did that for 30 something years and now I work in the aerospace industry. With all the stuff I built we never really knew the why's of a lot of it. We just built what the prints said. It nice to learn some of those why's and you do a great job of teaching it. Thank you.
Never seen your videos before and know nothing about engineering. But I am a public speaking and presentation coach, and you are a FANTASTIC communicator. Thoroughly impressed.
There is a new oil change place being built near my house. They used a large network of dewatering pipes to lower the water level so they could excavate and pour the "basement" area where the mechanics work under the car (no lifts, cars drive in at ground level). I wasn't sure what the situation was until this video explained it perfectly.
Loving the easy to understand civil engineering explanations, I recently got given a job centered around civil engineering, but I have no experience with it, and these video's are a great leg up for the training to come
This makes me wonder if when dams are removed, do they actually remove all these hidden supplemental structures? You usually see the dramatic demolition of some dams to restore salmon runs or just because it's reservoir has silted up but never any detail about cutoff walls or drains.
It would be interesting to go over another BC civil engineering disaster and recovery; The failure of the Coquihalla Highway during flooding in 2021, which washed out huge sections of the British Columbia Coquihalla highway, destroying the entire roadway and the fixtures it was built upon. The recovery and rebuild operation was massive, and was very expensive.
Because of this channel, I have been recommended and have subscribed to both WorksafeBC and USCSB channels. It is interesting to see how small mistakes and oversights result in big disasters (and loss of life, too often) and how the industries learn from the events to (hopefully) make the future safer.
Good topic, this can be an issue for any structure that extends below ground. One that comes to mind is an empty pool being pushed out of the ground after a heavy rain.
It boggled my mind when I finally understood that everything has the potential to float it just depends on the factors around it. Once I understood that, so much more of the world in general made sense. :)
Been a Land Improvement contractor in the Midwest for 25 years. Installed millions of ft of tile and many ponds. He is spot on with his models and how to keep a dam stable. I have a poor man’s engineering degree with lots of seat time. He does a great job on all his videos.
I love your voice and cadence in these videos so much (: You make some really complex subjects easy to understand with your super clear narration and simple explanations. Thank you, Grady! 🙏😊
13:16 pouring a sauce in a pattern without knowing the precise viscosity must be done by trial and error. That is to say, the first little bit is uneven because the person pouring is learning the change in container angle needed to achieve a somewhat consistent flowrate. Also explains why the end of the pattern is "pretty good"
If you want to find water, dig a hole and put stuff in it that you don't want to get wet. You'll have more water than you know what to do with. Works anywhere.
Living in a very Karst topography dominated river valley area, i have been able to locate underground streams thanks to knowledge i picked up via videos like this. My livestock would like to thank you for their (virtually)never ending fresh flowing water supply. The chickens have been loving the mud bugs (crawfish) living in along them as well.
At 3:39, you mark the current water level, but in the rest of the video, I can't see the mark for comparison. Next time, can you make a long, brightly colored dry erase line and label it large enough to easily see at 720p? Otherwise, the video was great.
Your videos and the way in which you explain the principles is golden. One question... I would like to build the test fixture and make all the accessories in your video. In the interest of time, would you happen to have instructions and a BOM to share? Thanks in advance!
Your videos are pretty wonderful. I don't watch too many channels like this, but your videos are so clear and well explained I really enjoy them. I feel like you reveal my interest in things I didn't know I would find interesting.
As a geotechnical engineer, thanks for explaining part of what we do! Actually, I would love to see an entire video describing the wide variety of scenarios, mathematical models, and methods we use to keep buildings straight and roads functional. No one knows what we do!!
What you're saying about uplift is something I seen here in the Netherlands with demolition work as well. We've removed massive concrete basements which were in ground water as well. We'd be pumping water all the time or the whole site would flood. The craziest thing is that most people think the piles under structures like that are to keep it from sinking, but about 70% of those piles were there to actually keep everything from floating up due to the massive ground water uplift pressure
Years ago in school I did a CFD analysis of fluid passing through a porous membrane and it ended up just like your physical model! Real neat! I miss that type of feeling.
As a DIY guy dealing with a project on a recently acquired property; I am so grateful to you ( and the internet which is a transformational in it’s own right. Only problem is I don’t have enough waking hours to consume / drink the fire hose volume of knowledge .
"Developing flow nets is almost an art as much as a science." Well, that helps to explain why my hydrology professor could never really adequately explain how to draw a flow net. If only he hadn't made us all do it on the final exam...
Some of the caves here in the Tennessee, Albama, and Georgia region (TAG) have such whacky paths it hurts my brain trying to think of the eons it took to erode out the way they did and seeing how the water flows currently.
This explainer is so informative, a dummy like me can understand it enough to explain it to others (to some degree). As a flooring installer I intend to reference this video to homeowners having a tough time understanding that attaching flooring to concrete is not as simple as just spreading some glue and collecting a paycheck. Thank you sir, you are a wonderful tracher.
greetings from Melbourne AUS, great video, as a fellow engineer im appears to know few expert dam engineer in victoria and i have heard far too many people say dam-wall, its just a dam like you said 👍. On a smaller civil project we often used to installed precast concrete pit/wall to mitigate the groundwater issues, we also monitors the seepage points on dams and measure the ground movement with piezo, some older dam also have tradional pendulm to measure the movement. some area has historical ground water level and some large project would normally have sump pit and pump installed. thanks again for the video
Grady, just want you to know you are awesome. I'm a semi old dude with 5 kids and a professional career. I don't have much free time but when I do I watch your channel. You do an excellent job of making the content reachable and enjoyble to such a wide variety of people.
I just love these demonstrations of yours. Should we have something like this on our Technology lessons in secondary school, it might have had attracted far more people to engineering topics. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge and utilizing your skills in this amazing way.
A very similar incident happened in Alaska in 2010. A crew was working on a water well for a prison construction project I was working on when one of them was swallowed by a sinkhole right next to the well casing. He, unfortunately, did not make it being buried under 15 feet of soil.
I have seen that exact work safety video and thought it was cool you included it! Have you seen a similar video titled Delta P? It details the force of pressure from one water source to another and how this can be dangerous. It is an interesting watch and definitely worth checking out! Love your content!!!
After a couple of years of watching your videos, I now walk around wondering how buildings, dams and bridges manage to stay up at all! In the early days of civil engineering, rather than some designs being unlucky, it feels more like the majority were just lucky!
Once one starts to watch disaster breakdown videos, this kind of perspective becomes even more intense! 😅 Even in best of circumstances there can be unanticipated factors leading to surprise results - but then add in cost-cutting, political shenanigans, and the occasional natural disaster or shonky contractor... 😬
They strictly regulated themselves in secret societies and closely guarded their recipes for building materials so idiots couldn’t get involved, basically.
The lack of aqueducts in modern society shows the general degradation of build quality over time. Dams are actually horrible for the environment and this is sort of a useless science because someday they will all be made illegal for destroying fish migrations.
Thanks for all the great content Grady. I work in building construction, and because of my exposure to some of the engineering content you cover I can say you do a great job explaining these concepts in layman terms. It was interesting to hear you talk about the sink hole in BC. That's where I live and remember this event right around the time we were digging a 90' deep hole for a tower in downtown Vancouver and the hazard alert from WorkSafeBC was circulating...
I am making a comment to indicate to the algorithm that I am both engaged and commenting while the ad is playing. Side note. Thanks for making this videos. You have completely sparked my interest in practical engineering in a way I never thought possible. Could I have just made that comment without the first sentence? Sure.
I recently heard about the terrible trouble they are having at Fukushima with groundwater flows penetrating the basement and becoming radioactive. It seems they excavated substantially into the hillside when building the plant and this has left the structures unusually under threat from large groundwater flows. While Japan is short on flat land for construction, especially next to the sea which is needed for cooling water, this seems to me to be a reckless choice. Of all the things you don't want to get flooded the basement of a nuclear reactor is pretty high up on the list. It would be interesting to hear a professional point of view on whether this was a perfectly normal practice that has only become a problem because of the extreme earthquake and tsunami, or if they really shouldn't have built the reactor building into the hillside like this. The ground freezing techniques they are using to combat the problem are also interesting.
One of the main contributing factors to New Orleans flooding during Hurricane Katrina was the sheet piling they drove beneath the levees was not was not driven deep enough. As a result, the levees we're oversaturated by the storm surge and were more or less pushed out of the way like those early gravity dams that failed.
Grady, I love this channel. but I'm wondering, is there such a thing as impractical engineering? I guess that would be crazy wild ideas that wouldn't work or would be too expensive?
I'm not school for engineering nor interested in becoming and engineer but watching these videos and learning about why things are the way they are is fantastic.
I was told a story years ago about a farmer who finally got around to pulling out an old tree stump…and then his nearby pond dried up. For a couple hundred years those tree roots were all that had been diverting groundwater to keep the nearby pond filled. Ground water hydrology is fascinating.
Hundreds of years? It would biodegrade by then.
@@LeviForWaifu That assumes the tree was dead for hundreds of years. Tree could have been alive for a long time then died more recently, and eventually the stump was removed.
I will say though, it does feel a bit hard to determine that a particular tree was the sole reason for a pond existing for hundreds of years.
Might be the other way around ─ removing the stump left holes where the roots were that drained it.
@@LeviForWaifu I'm including the pre-stump period, back when the roots were feeding a living tree.
@@LeviForWaifu Not necessarily. For instance the wooden pilings that were put down in the 1200s to the 1500s continue to hold up the buildings of Venice. I cannot remember which English cathedral needed repair to one corner of its pilings,but that was done around WWI. They too were put down in the medieval era, and the remaining pilings were seen to be sound.
There are peat bogs where the original plants at the deepest ,date from the retreat of the glaciers and are quite identifiable. And that is what,12 to 15 thousand years ago.
Grady, I just want you to know that I've been watching your channel for years but I was able to put one of your videos to practical use yesterday. My grandmother (who grew up one of 8 kids on a tobacco farm in Rockingham, NC) had seen both water towers and grain bins all her 88 years but never known what they do/are for, since on her farm they used a well and drying sheds. Out of nowhere she asked me that while we were driving. I was able to mostly explain it to her because of your video on water towers and Destin's video on "Smarter Every Day" about grain bins. When we got to the house, I showed her both videos. I wouldn't have been able to answer her without you guys so I'm thanking you both.
Living in the Netherlands, water, and especially groundwater, is a massive part of life around here. It's good to finally learn how we control all that when building anything a meter below sea level.
I imagine ground water is not just an important but a somewhat terrifying matter when a good part of your country is at permanent risk from the ocean, rain, adverse weather, and pretty much all water on top of it.
Same is true in the state of Florida. You take about one meter you will hit water. Plus we have sinkholes. It's similar to building on top of a large brick of Swiss cheese.
@@EnlightenedSavage yeah one thing I noticed when I have visited Florida is just how many wells there are. I figured it must have been easy to hit water because just about every lawn sprinkler has a well.
@@Voltaic_Fire Not really, to be honest. Flood insurance, for example, is just not a thing here. Our water management infrastructure is so omnipresent and so fundamentally integrated into every level of life that we just don't think about it anymore. There's even a level of government which is equal to but distinct from the province level called the watersheds. So 'It's taken care of' is the mindset most of us have.
@@MrBlueBurd0451 I have seen your water management infrastructure, it really is impressive, but I'm a worrier so I do not think I could adopt the same mentality.
I'm a geotechnical engineer (the field of engineering that designs dams) and I can say that, while extremely simplified, the presentation of engineering concepts in the video is very accurate.
if you can't simplify something complicated - you don't understand it well enough.
Hi, I need your help. We are going to construct a 10 story building which is designed to sit on a raft. But the raft is also gonna sit on a 3m thick layer of hardcore. But we have big problem with ground water as it overflows even the hardcore we have laid. What could be the permanent solution to curb this ground water? Thanks
Thank god he's great at simplifying things, otherwise he would have about 13 subscribers 🤣
Remember that the Lord Jesus Christ died on a cross for you because He loves you so much. He then rose up from the dead three days later
The Ten Commandments are called the moral law, (most of us are lying thieving blasphemous adulterer at heart and deserve hell) you and I broke the law, Jesus paid the fine. That’s what happened on that cross.
By believing that Jesus died on the cross and rose up from the dead 3 days later and not just confessing your sin, but also repenting of all sin you have done and putting all your trust in Him in prayer, He will grant you everlasting life as a free Gift
@@dove3853 unsolicited religious comment, that doesn't have anything to do with the topic in discussion. So please refrain from doing this.
this definitely explains why, after resolving water management issues at my house, it only took a few months for water to find its way back in to the udrain and thereby to the sump.
@@chrisdawson1776I'm interested in his comment, as are a couple hundred people. It's relevant to the video.
@@chrisdawson1776 what are you talking about? We're talking about engineering not politics. You're attempt to guess someone's nationality and political affiliations based on absolutely nothing further confirms your ignorance for all to see. I'm sure your next post will just be additional proof of foolishness and immaturity.
@@SoulDelSol Don't reply to trolls, mate, that's what they want.
@@SoulDelSol some trolls will say anything to get a response. There's nothing to understand.
@@moonrazk true, thank you!
Great video, I'm a senior cad tech of 23 years and have done numerous dam inspection, monitoring and removal projects over the years. I usually get all the drilling and survey data and make detailed plans showing all the data. Your video was very well done sir! Just a month ago our survey crew went out to a dam that we had been monitoring for at least 15 years and was recently dewatered. I was shocked that the crest of the earthen dam sunk by a few inches after dewatering lol.
i have very very little formal education but you make these explanation videos so well that i always come out of them with a decent understanding of whatever the topic was when i previously had no understanding of it. a testament to the quality of your work. keep it up!
Can you sum it up for me?
I know, right. I also like Technology Connections content for the same reason. If you know of any other channels that explain things this well, please let me know. I hope you have a great week!
@@sagarshrestha5800 can you give me 100k USD? if not then no.
@@wabash1581 honestly i dont know of anything thats as easily understood and universally applicable as this channel. but i will check out what you recommended
@@saturationstation1446 would you like to take 100k USD written money 💰, 😈
A year or so ago I started working on the administrative side of a firm that does a lot of design and construction involving wells, lift stations, and so on, so these videos have suddenly become much more relevant to my daily life as I encounter the terminology on a regular basis! Thanks for building acrylic models in your basement.
It's insane that he managed to explain something in 14mins that took our tutor two 2hr lectures. I can't believe we're paying 9.25k a year for content that's taught far more effectively on UA-cam.
You're paying for the paper to say "look I'm qualified" not the tuition nowadays
Companies should change the application process to just a test of the required abilities! Test passed? You're in!
Only real advantage i could see is that you managed to pass test and time management while at uni!
@@filippoeich1180 that is not feasible, unless they provide their own training. Theory helps and is a basic requirement but practical understanding will not come easy. You have to be naturally talented toward the subject to circumvent the lack of experience.
"You wouldn't pirate an education, would you?"
I studied chemistry at the local university many years ago. I also found, that I could teach another student in an afternoon, what took other students 2-3 weeks to pick up from lectures and reading a few chapters in a chemistry book. (specifically organic substitution reactions).
As I recall, the books used words that didn't really describe the effects of common side groups on the reactions too well. Essentially, the books were written in a way, that meant you had to read them really, really close, more than twice, spending hours on a few pages, trying to figure out what the author is trying to convey.
I'm an engineer and the concepts that you can efficiently describe in 10 minutes are worth hours of reading a text book. Love your videos!
Remember that the Lord Jesus Christ died on a cross for you because He loves you so much. He then rose up from the dead three days later
The Ten Commandments are called the moral law, (most of us are lying thieving blasphemous adulterer at heart and deserve hell) you and I broke the law, Jesus paid the fine. That’s what happened on that cross.
By believing that Jesus died on the cross and rose up from the dead 3 days later and not just confessing your sin, but also repenting of all sin you have done and putting all your trust in Him in prayer, He will grant you everlasting life as a free Gift
@@dove3853 yeah ok... in what parallel universe does this have anything to do with the video?
@dove3853 it's not by definition "free" if you have to do something for it.... no worries I don't expect much from the folks that believe in an all powerful magical sky wizard
Maybe you're a slow reader 😅
Just gotta say, I LOVE how the crane in the background slowly builds more and more with each video ❤
Oooo, didn't see that!
I live in a town that apparently used to be a swamp or marshland on top of being in a geological bowl, so we flood almost every storm. it never occurred to me how difficult it would be for a civil engineer in this area. I love your channel cause it helps me notice these things
I was introduced to this concept during flood defense. Turns out it's too expensive to shore up a river with miles of concrete so you have to rely on good solid earth... And when the water level rises too far, any water seeping through is a threat that can only be contained by, not blocking the exit hole, but building a cylinder of sandbags around the exit that allows the water level to rise to the level of the river on the other side, equalizing pressure and stopping flow.
It's all so counterintuitive for laypeople!
Yawn 🥱 who asked?
@@wooshbait36 I Asked.
@@wooshbait36 I asked.
@@jacobbachman4014 yawn
One of the challenges of a great educator is to simplify concepts and tame complexity while keeping it scientific.
You excel at this and manage to make me understand and be fascinated and value all engineering work.
I've never been more glad to live somewhere where there is only 6 inches of soil before you hit rock.
It always amazes me to see people digging really deep holes with nothing more than a shovel. If I do anything more than scraping the surface I have to break out the pickaxe or power tools.
haha, we say the same thing here in coastal BC. But there are river valleys, etc where the soil is deeper.
I remember trying to dig holes for various things growing up and always hitting massive boulders or at least 100+lb rocks within the first 12".
I live on an ancient lakebed, it's basically several hundred feet of gravel. So diggings frustrating unless you have big equipment. It handles water well though. In spring you can literally see the surrounding hills draining themselves of water after the ground thaws by the trail conditions. The driest areas will be on top first and then spread down.
we have places like that here too. no foundation needed for the houses just to level it. but digging a cellar underground its a nightmare. opposite to that where i live i bet the only rock i find is what we put in there. we have like 50cm of soil which is cultivated in some way, then brown clay for a meter and after that grey clay till the end of the world :D
We've got a huge gravel layer under the first meters of soil. No amount of rain has ever been able to flood the land here, except some underpass that will clear itself within a few hours at worst
...and here I am with our house sitting on the side of a sand hill. Our neighbours to the back have their ground floor at the same level as our 2nd floor, our gardens are separated by a 3.5 metre high and 130+ year old sandstone wall.
When our neighbour to the right excavated for a small kids' pool near the back of his garden, a section of that wall collapsed...
I love that acrylic sand water flow demonstration! There are so many little experiment you could do with it. Groundwater is super interesting and I am always trying find ways to tie in fresh water with my classes--now I have another rad application! Thanks!
Hi Grady - Is it possible for you to do a video on the effects of over-pumping ground water for potable municipal water supplies? We live in Florida where the soil is sandy and population has been growing fast. Intuitively - I believe the result has been that the local water table around these “well-fields” gets lowered to a point where organic s in the soil are exposed to oxygen. The organics decompose leading to subsidence, often in residential areas where foundations are not built strong enough to resist pressures. Added to this were development practices where organic fill or “scrapings” were used to level certain areas to create more usable lots. With 5 feet of clean inorganic sand placed on top. I’m speaking from personal experience here documented with subsurface samples and ground penetrating radar studies. The part I am not familiar with has to do with the effect (for potentially miles around) of a lowering of the local water table. Not to mention saltwater intrusion when drilling near the ocean where most of Florida’s population lives. Mostly I’m interested in the more general hydrological engineering considerations as a result of “over pumping” the aquifer. Water is very expensive in Florida for these reasons. Most communities use reclaimed water to lower the pumping demand.
I can definitely add it to my list of ideas for future videos. Subsidence is a widespread consequence of groundwater withdrawals, and some places even have subsidence districts that regulate pumping (e.g. Houston). But the mechanism you described of organic decomp of topsoil isn't one I'm familiar with.
@@PracticalEngineeringChannel I remember from my intro hydrology course the picture of the telephone pole in California that subsided something like 20 ft
Subsidence is caused by the over-pumping of aquifers leading to the pore structures in the soil collapsing. I haven't heard of organic decomposition causing subsidence but if you could link some resources I'd be interested in reading about it. Usually, organic soil has oxygen available for decomposition unless it's a wetland or used to be a wetland and the organic material is deep enough for oxygen not to penetrate.
@@PracticalEngineeringChannel Subsidence due to lowering the water table is an interesting topic for sure. In the area around Gouda in the Netherlands (yes, the same name as the cheese) the groundwater level is extremely high. The soil consists of peat and has a very high organic content. If the water table is lowered, the ground will be exposed to air, and hence the organic matter will rot away almost completely. The desired effect of lowering the water table is completely overturned. The need to pump out water from canals becomes even more important.
If you want an over-the-top case study for Subsidence, check Mexico City. The whole city was originally built on top of a lake, and has (or used to have) a huge sinking rate.
I don't know what we'd do without all of those dam engineers.
I love this channel, thanks for educating us on UA-cam university.
That is a good name for channels like Grady’s. I hope you don’t mind if I steal this.
i would like UA-cam university app to happen
I remember this one, they never did recover that worker's boots.
RIP WorkBoots
The demonstration really shows how surprisingly well water follows Darcy's law. Having a degree in mathematics I've seen my share of the Laplace operator :-). However, obviously the model will break down for fast flow rates and when the soil starts moving. When a evaluating a construction design, are there some well-established limits for the model validity? How slow should be flow be to trust that the soil stays in place?
Very generally, if soil is moving below a structure, you have bigger problems than the groundwater model :) Soil is confined and unable to move with groundwater except at the surface, so a big part of geotechnical design of subsurface structures involves making sure all seepage exit points are filtered. See also, "exit gradient."
Im not sure if you will see this, but I am a hydrogeologist and use Darcy's Law everyday, as well as some of the modelling softwares shown in the video. The assumption in almost all saturated zone flow modelling is that the rock/soil matrix acts as a static environment inwhich the flows are modelled (ie; no soil seepage).
To answer your question about model validity, maximum flow speeds are limited only by your starting paramteres, and of course in theory you could create a physically impossible model using darcys law. However (and this is key), the starting model parameters are almost always sourced from geotechnical and geological studies of the site in question, and are 'sanity checked' against the known hydrogeological setting using a 'base case' model. We dont just use the math when assessing flow speed either, other tools can be used to further validate the model.
This sounds so interesting but as someone new to ur channel without any understanding how ur models work I'm lost
Fantastic timing! I'm a CAD tech and currently working on a big hydrogeo study on an LNG project. Puts alot of context to the figures I help draft up when it comes to all things groundwater related.
Do you use blender for cad ?
@@wertiaaudit5746 nope. I work with autocad, civil3d and arcgis for the GIS stuff
@@mc116 the Greeks or Romans would be so jealous of our software.
2:34 "I have a whole video on piping that you can check out after this one" what do you mean by that my boi
Great video. As an 'amateur civil engineer' I'm always interested in your work. The demonstrations are great as well. Seeing the dye making turns to get under cutoffs and flowing towards drains really brings the concepts to life. Hope your family is doing well, is your new addition a boy or girl? Best of luck to you all.
Im a Hydrogeologist / Groundwater Engineer, thank you for such a cool visual display of familiar ideas, was a treat. You also explained the basics of the field perfectly, thanks mate.
Im an astronaut
@@RONPEE-STINGER Go to school and get good at somthing and then maybe you wont feel the need to be a snarky prick on the internet Mr Astronaut
I love your UA-cam series! Wish it was around when I was a in High School. I think your videos would of really motivated me into exploring a very interesting career. I think your channel is not only interesting, but an excellent educating tool.
So great you featured this incident in BC, it was a great shock to everybody here.
The LRT (underground rail line) construction in Ottawa, Ontario had caused a massive sinkhole on a very busy downtown street that swallowed a van that was never recovered.
As a geotechnical PM, I love your videos. My company will be drilling into a 100 foot earthen dam to address seepage issues. I look forward to seeing what solution we can come up with!
My parents have an ingroumd pool and at the deepest point (10ft diving pit) the pool has a hydrostatic valve that lets water into the pool from the ground for basically the same reason, if the hydrostatic pressure is more than the weight of the pool it i could litterally float on the water and break a lot of things.
When it is full this isn't a problem but it does need to be drained every couple of years to paint it or do other maintenance and when its empty its a much bigger concern. (One year the valve failed and we lost 3ft of water overnight)
That pressure issue is why decommissioning an in-ground pool requires a breaking of the concrete tub, and not just filling it in and capping with sod.
I've seen a few videos where people bought a house and the pool was not disclosed in the sale, only to have it rise up out of the ground during the next wet spring season.
One of the buildings in Cologne near the Rhine river is has a two-level underground car park underneath. During extreme high water of the Rhein river, the garage is automatically flooded to prevent the building from swimming. Same principle as the pool. There's even a rowboat in the garage for the (rare) cases when this happens.
@@MonkeyJedi99 it must not have been filled in and compacted. soil is heavier than water but loose gravel may not be.
Brilliant idea using the model to demonstrate each problem, so visually clear and making it way easier to understand!
Ive been in construction building things since 1979. Started building pools but after a few years I became an electrician. Did that for 30 something years and now I work in the aerospace industry. With all the stuff I built we never really knew the why's of a lot of it. We just built what the prints said. It nice to learn some of those why's and you do a great job of teaching it. Thank you.
Never seen your videos before and know nothing about engineering.
But I am a public speaking and presentation coach, and you are a FANTASTIC communicator. Thoroughly impressed.
There is a new oil change place being built near my house. They used a large network of dewatering pipes to lower the water level so they could excavate and pour the "basement" area where the mechanics work under the car (no lifts, cars drive in at ground level). I wasn't sure what the situation was until this video explained it perfectly.
Have you seen the Physics Girl video about this sinkhole that is gradually moving and almost destroying roads and railways? Fascinating stuff
AQ
Nice to see a young man putting common sense with integrity and morals into the world. All hope is not lost. Keep it up brother.
Loving the easy to understand civil engineering explanations, I recently got given a job centered around civil engineering, but I have no experience with it, and these video's are a great leg up for the training to come
My name is christo and I live in fear of groundwater.
You probably have rabies
we love practical engineering uploads!!
Your channel is literally one of my all-time favourite youtube channels. Your videos are so good and interesting to watch.
This makes me wonder if when dams are removed, do they actually remove all these hidden supplemental structures? You usually see the dramatic demolition of some dams to restore salmon runs or just because it's reservoir has silted up but never any detail about cutoff walls or drains.
Yes! and will they be discovered eons from now, future archeologists trying to decipher what these strange hoo-mons were up to?
Wahahaha
The physical models explain these complicated subjects so well! Great video!
It would be interesting to go over another BC civil engineering disaster and recovery; The failure of the Coquihalla Highway during flooding in 2021, which washed out huge sections of the British Columbia Coquihalla highway, destroying the entire roadway and the fixtures it was built upon. The recovery and rebuild operation was massive, and was very expensive.
Because of this channel, I have been recommended and have subscribed to both WorksafeBC and USCSB channels.
It is interesting to see how small mistakes and oversights result in big disasters (and loss of life, too often) and how the industries learn from the events to (hopefully) make the future safer.
How did I find myself watching this video? My algorithms confuse me but I’m not mad about it
i remember watching that video when it first came out, its cool to see that again, especially explained with your models
"The sea was angry that day my friends, like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli."
I build tailings dams and I absolutely love your videos. My friends and family have a better grasp of what I do because of them. Cheers.
Good topic, this can be an issue for any structure that extends below ground. One that comes to mind is an empty pool being pushed out of the ground after a heavy rain.
Great example.
It boggled my mind when I finally understood that everything has the potential to float it just depends on the factors around it. Once I understood that, so much more of the world in general made sense. :)
I hope you know you’re one of the youtube GOAT’s and always will be. You’ve left a mark on this platform.
Been a Land Improvement contractor in the Midwest for 25 years. Installed millions of ft of tile and many ponds. He is spot on with his models and how to keep a dam stable. I have a poor man’s engineering degree with lots of seat time. He does a great job on all his videos.
I love your voice and cadence in these videos so much (: You make some really complex subjects easy to understand with your super clear narration and simple explanations. Thank you, Grady! 🙏😊
13:16 pouring a sauce in a pattern without knowing the precise viscosity must be done by trial and error. That is to say, the first little bit is uneven because the person pouring is learning the change in container angle needed to achieve a somewhat consistent flowrate. Also explains why the end of the pattern is "pretty good"
If you want to find water, dig a hole and put stuff in it that you don't want to get wet. You'll have more water than you know what to do with. Works anywhere.
Living in a very Karst topography dominated river valley area, i have been able to locate underground streams thanks to knowledge i picked up via videos like this. My livestock would like to thank you for their (virtually)never ending fresh flowing water supply. The chickens have been loving the mud bugs (crawfish) living in along them as well.
And thanks for putting the ad at the back of the video! You rock!
At 3:39, you mark the current water level, but in the rest of the video, I can't see the mark for comparison. Next time, can you make a long, brightly colored dry erase line and label it large enough to easily see at 720p? Otherwise, the video was great.
Your videos and the way in which you explain the principles is golden. One question... I would like to build the test fixture and make all the accessories in your video. In the interest of time, would you happen to have instructions and a BOM to share? Thanks in advance!
Only Grady can make dams and water so interesting. This channel is a godsend! 😃👍
Solid content. Thx for posting
Your videos are pretty wonderful. I don't watch too many channels like this, but your videos are so clear and well explained I really enjoy them. I feel like you reveal my interest in things I didn't know I would find interesting.
You come up with some of the best, most clear demonstrations for the concepts that you are explaining. Excellent presentation!
As a geotechnical engineer, thanks for explaining part of what we do! Actually, I would love to see an entire video describing the wide variety of scenarios, mathematical models, and methods we use to keep buildings straight and roads functional. No one knows what we do!!
@@Anthony-yz3vj why spend an extra $5k up front when you can spend a ton of engineering time and concrete later
@@zbou23 ....? you must be referring to leaning/sinking Millenium tower, in San Fran. What a fiasco.....686,000 pounds, of leaning cement.
@@petersack5074 there isn't a plumb building in america ;)
In my opinion, this is the best video I've seen here! Thanks, Grady, for all this.
Can you make a video detailing underwater construction techniques for things like the Golden Gate Bridge?
He already sort of did! Just not specific to the Golden Gate Bridge.
ua-cam.com/video/URC125wpMS4/v-deo.html
I have one like that made a few years ago
@@PracticalEngineeringChannel Thanks
What you're saying about uplift is something I seen here in the Netherlands with demolition work as well. We've removed massive concrete basements which were in ground water as well. We'd be pumping water all the time or the whole site would flood. The craziest thing is that most people think the piles under structures like that are to keep it from sinking, but about 70% of those piles were there to actually keep everything from floating up due to the massive ground water uplift pressure
Is sewage-lift designed intentionally to swap flows betwixt water table?
Years ago in school I did a CFD analysis of fluid passing through a porous membrane and it ended up just like your physical model! Real neat! I miss that type of feeling.
I install well points and airlift wells for an open pit phosphate mine and this video really helps others around me understand why I install them.
This is way too advanced for me...
As a DIY guy dealing with a project on a recently acquired property; I am so grateful to you ( and the internet which is a transformational in it’s own right. Only problem is I don’t have enough waking hours to consume / drink the fire hose volume of knowledge .
2:40 "I have a whole video on piping that you can check out after this one"
Yeah i bet you do.
The guy pulled in was pulled out safe. No one died. I remember watching that Worksafe BC video.
"Developing flow nets is almost an art as much as a science."
Well, that helps to explain why my hydrology professor could never really adequately explain how to draw a flow net.
If only he hadn't made us all do it on the final exam...
Hearing Grady say "I have a whole video about piping" made my eyes dart back to the screen real quick
Engineering is an amazing field that has so many possibilities! You're inspiring and I can't wait to see what you achieve next!
Grady, not just bikes and city planner plays need to team up to make the world's best city
Some of the caves here in the Tennessee, Albama, and Georgia region (TAG) have such whacky paths it hurts my brain trying to think of the eons it took to erode out the way they did and seeing how the water flows currently.
This explainer is so informative, a dummy like me can understand it enough to explain it to others (to some degree).
As a flooring installer I intend to reference this video to homeowners having a tough time understanding that attaching flooring to concrete is not as simple as just spreading some glue and collecting a paycheck.
Thank you sir, you are a wonderful tracher.
"Brawndo...It's got what plants crave."
It's got electrolytes
greetings from Melbourne AUS, great video, as a fellow engineer im appears to know few expert dam engineer in victoria and i have heard far too many people say dam-wall, its just a dam like you said 👍. On a smaller civil project we often used to installed precast concrete pit/wall to mitigate the groundwater issues, we also monitors the seepage points on dams and measure the ground movement with piezo, some older dam also have tradional pendulm to measure the movement. some area has historical ground water level and some large project would normally have sump pit and pump installed. thanks again for the video
Grady, just want you to know you are awesome. I'm a semi old dude with 5 kids and a professional career. I don't have much free time but when I do I watch your channel. You do an excellent job of making the content reachable and enjoyble to such a wide variety of people.
I just love these demonstrations of yours. Should we have something like this on our Technology lessons in secondary school, it might have had attracted far more people to engineering topics. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge and utilizing your skills in this amazing way.
A very similar incident happened in Alaska in 2010. A crew was working on a water well for a prison construction project I was working on when one of them was swallowed by a sinkhole right next to the well casing. He, unfortunately, did not make it being buried under 15 feet of soil.
I have seen that exact work safety video and thought it was cool you included it!
Have you seen a similar video titled Delta P? It details the force of pressure from one water source to another and how this can be dangerous. It is an interesting watch and definitely worth checking out!
Love your content!!!
I truly believe this is the best video you’ve ever produced. Maybe I just annoyed the content, but it was really well done.
After a couple of years of watching your videos, I now walk around wondering how buildings, dams and bridges manage to stay up at all! In the early days of civil engineering, rather than some designs being unlucky, it feels more like the majority were just lucky!
Once one starts to watch disaster breakdown videos, this kind of perspective becomes even more intense! 😅
Even in best of circumstances there can be unanticipated factors leading to surprise results - but then add in cost-cutting, political shenanigans, and the occasional natural disaster or shonky contractor... 😬
I wonder how ancient succesful builders did the job...
They strictly regulated themselves in secret societies and closely guarded their recipes for building materials so idiots couldn’t get involved, basically.
The lack of aqueducts in modern society shows the general degradation of build quality over time. Dams are actually horrible for the environment and this is sort of a useless science because someday they will all be made illegal for destroying fish migrations.
Lots and lots of Trial and Error
Knocked it out of the park yet again! Keep it up, Sir!
Thanks for all the great content Grady. I work in building construction, and because of my exposure to some of the engineering content you cover I can say you do a great job explaining these concepts in layman terms.
It was interesting to hear you talk about the sink hole in BC. That's where I live and remember this event right around the time we were digging a 90' deep hole for a tower in downtown Vancouver and the hazard alert from WorkSafeBC was circulating...
I am making a comment to indicate to the algorithm that I am both engaged and commenting while the ad is playing.
Side note. Thanks for making this videos. You have completely sparked my interest in practical engineering in a way I never thought possible. Could I have just made that comment without the first sentence? Sure.
You should do a video on the Three Gorges. There was a bit of hype last year about how it was about to collapse.
Everytime I want to learn more more from this channel, I leave with more questions.
I recently heard about the terrible trouble they are having at Fukushima with groundwater flows penetrating the basement and becoming radioactive. It seems they excavated substantially into the hillside when building the plant and this has left the structures unusually under threat from large groundwater flows. While Japan is short on flat land for construction, especially next to the sea which is needed for cooling water, this seems to me to be a reckless choice. Of all the things you don't want to get flooded the basement of a nuclear reactor is pretty high up on the list. It would be interesting to hear a professional point of view on whether this was a perfectly normal practice that has only become a problem because of the extreme earthquake and tsunami, or if they really shouldn't have built the reactor building into the hillside like this. The ground freezing techniques they are using to combat the problem are also interesting.
One of the main contributing factors to New Orleans flooding during Hurricane Katrina was the sheet piling they drove beneath the levees was not was not driven deep enough. As a result, the levees we're oversaturated by the storm surge and were more or less pushed out of the way like those early gravity dams that failed.
Grady, I love this channel. but I'm wondering, is there such a thing as impractical engineering? I guess that would be crazy wild ideas that wouldn't work or would be too expensive?
0:49 “I’m Grady and this is practical engineer.”
THE INTRO CHANGED
"I have a whole video on piping you can check out after this one." Well, quite the flirt today, aren't we? 😂
"I piped your moms basement"
So glad I'm nerdy enough to have already seen the video that your referencing in this video. Thanks for this video.
I'm not school for engineering nor interested in becoming and engineer but watching these videos and learning about why things are the way they are is fantastic.
I don’t know why UA-cam shows me this video. But it was insane and interesting content! Thanx for this!
I'm not an engineer of anything. But this video really explained the forces at work and how to resist them really well. Great vid.
I REALLY appreciate the visualization provided in this demo.