Case Study: Hollandsche Beton-en Waterbouw (HBW) achieves successful first-time inflatable dam operation with MSC.Software

Simulation Leads to Successful First-time Operation of Inflatable Dam

Hollandsche Beton-en Waterbouw (HBW), a Dutch design/build engineering firm, needed to validate the design of a very large inflatable storm surge barrier that had never been built before. HBW turned to MSC Software and its MSC.Marc nonlinear simulation software, along with MSC.Software Professional Services, to understand the dam’s behavior, inflation/deflation process, and stress levels before construction.

MSC Software used finite element simulation and professional engineering support to test the membrane’s performance, optimize the clamp design, and correlate results with scale-model testing. The analysis led to design improvements that kept stresses within the required safety margin, and when a major storm hit the Netherlands in 2002, the dam deployed automatically in less than one hour as predicted, then deflated within another hour.

Hollandsche Beton-en Waterbouw(HBW)

Hans Dries

Project Manager