Cavity length below chute aerators

Abstract

It is proved that air entrainment is one of the efficient measures dealing with cavitation control for the release works of hydropower projects. There are many factors to be considered in designing a chute aerator. One of the most important factors concerns the cavity length below the aerator, which has outstanding effects on air entrainment against cavitation damage. It is crucial to determine reasonable emergence angle for the calculation of the cavity length. In the present paper the overall effects of structural and hydraulic parameters on the emergence angle of the flow from the aerator were analyzed. Four improved expressions of the emergence angle with weight coefficient were investigated through experimental data of 68 points observed from 12 aerators of 6 hydropower projects, of both model and prototype, on the basis of error theory. A method to calculate the cavity length below aerators was suggested, which considers overall effects of the above mentioned parameters. Comparison between the method in this paper and the other five methods of calculating the cavity length showed that the present method is much more reliable than the existing methods while the mean error of the method is less than others.