VILLEMONTE

VILLEMONTE 11.05. 1912 Fennimore WI/USA 16.08. 1996 Madison WI/USA James Richard Villemonte received education from the University of Wisconsin, Madison WI, with the BS degree in 1935, the MS degree in 1941, and the PhD degree in 1949. He was a research assistant there from 1941 to 1947, in parallel instructor and assistant professor until 1947 at Pennsylvania State College, University Park PA, in charge of its hydraulic laboratory, from when he continued from associate professor to professor of civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin. In the 1950s, he was twice guest professor of applied mechanics at the Bengal Engineering College, Calcutta, India, coordinating later the collaboration in hydraulics between India and the USA. Further international activities also included assistance to Nigeria and Indonesia. Villemonte authored one of the successful papers on the submergence effect of weirs. Weirs may be employed to measure discharge by only reading the approach flow head, provided free flow conditions occur. If the tailwater level exceeds a certain height, referred to as the modular limit, then the discharge depends on both the approach flow and the tailwater elevations. Villemonte, based on classical flow studies, related the discharge of these flows to the free-flow discharge and a submergence parameter, which was demonstrated to depend exclusively on the weir geometry. Given this simple result, his 1947 became a classic paper in hydraulic engineering. Villemonte further was active in the Hydraulics Division Executive Committee of the American Society of Civil Engineers ASCE, chairing it in the mid-1960s. He also served as chairman his Civil and Environmental Engineering Department from 1972 to 1976, after having received the 1969 Polygon Engineering Council Outstanding Instructor Award. He in addition was presented the 1978 distinguished service award from the ASCE Wisconsin Section. Anonymous (1964). Villemonte, J.R. Who’s who in engineering 9: 1932. Lewis: New York. Anonymous (1966). Prof. James R. Villemonte. Civil Engineering 36(12): 71. P Anonymous (1996). James R. Villemonte. Trans. ASCE 161: 572-573. Villemonte, J.R. (1943). New type gaging station for small streams. Engineering News-Record 131(Nov.18): 748-750. Villemonte, J.R. (1947). Submerged-weir discharge studies. Engineering News-Record 139(Dec.25): 866-869. Villemonte, J.R., Gunaji, V.N. (1953). Equation for submerged sharp-crested weirs found applicable to 6-in Parshall flume. Civil Engineering 23(6): 406-407.