Analysis of Energy Dissipation of Interval-Pooled Stepped Spillways.

Xin Ma,Jianmin Zhang,Yaan Hu

doi:10.3390/e24010085

Abstract

The water flow characteristics over an interval-pooled stepped spillway are investigated by combining the renormalization group (RNG) k-ε turbulence model with the volume of fluid (VOF) interface capture technique in the present study. The results show that the energy dissipation performance of the interval-pooled stepped spillway was generally better than that of the pooled, stepped spillways and the traditional flat-panel stepped spillway. The omega vortex intensity identification method is introduced to evaluate the energy dissipation. Due to the formation of “pseudo-weir”, the energy dissipation did not increase with the growth of the pool’s height. In addition, the average vortex intensity can characterize the dissipation rate to some extent.

Highlights

Stepped spillways have been widely utilized as energy dissipation facilities in hydraulic engineering and show great potential due to achieving a better rate of energy dissipation while releasing excess flood water [1,2,3]
Felder and Chanson (2013) and Thorwarth (2009) conducted physical experiments on pooled stepped spillways with chute slopes of θ = 8.9◦, 14.6◦, and 26.8◦, and the results showed that the energy dissipation efficiency of pooled stepped spillways performed well, but unstable free surface fluctuations occurred at a chute slope θ of 8.9◦, which could cause some potential problems for the step structure
The present data show there was a large difference in the residual energy of the connected steps of the interval-pooled stepped spillways

Summary

Introduction

Stepped spillways have been widely utilized as energy dissipation facilities in hydraulic engineering and show great potential due to achieving a better rate of energy dissipation while releasing excess flood water [1,2,3]. They can reduce the scale of the stilling basin and the number of downstream protection works and decrease the extent of downstream river erosion, which has excellent economic and technical performance indicators [4].

Methods

Results

Conclusion