Effect of ramp slope on the efficiency of hump weirs in free flow condition

Abstract

A series of numerical simulations was performed to study the discharge capacity of symmetrical hump weirs in free flow condition. A wide range of ramp slopes was selected from 1 V:1 H to 1 V:5 H and the effects of flow discharge and ramp slope on variations of discharge coefficient were investigated. The variations of upstream water head with discharge indicated the existence of two distinct flow regimes on free flow over symmetrical hump weirs. It was found that the discharge coefficient increased with increasing the upstream water head until the maximum discharge coefficient was achieved. Further increase of water head caused a reduction in discharge coefficient and the flow regime became inefficient. The proposed models for prediction of discharge characteristics of sharp-crested weirs with an upstream and (or) downstream ramp(s) from the literature were also compared with the discharge capacity of sharp-crested weirs to study the effects of ramp slope. It was found that the available head–discharge models are acceptable for hump weirs with small ramp length and more accurate prediction models are required for symmetrical hump weirs with larger ramps. The boundary curve to determine the optimum performance in symmetrical hump weirs was introduced, and the head–discharge models for both efficient and inefficient discharge conditions were proposed.