Experimental and numerical investigation of flow over a spillway bend with different combinations of permeable spur dikes

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, the effects of different combinations of permeable spur dikes installed in the bend section of spillway on flow characteristics and energy dissipation rate were experimentally and numerically investigated. The results indicate that the permeable spur dikes installed in the spillway bend appreciably contributes to the improvement on the water surface uniformity, and the water surface uniformity can reach 90.13% with three permeable spur dikes installed in the bend. The permeable spur dike can lead to different degrees of decrease in the time-averaged longitudinal velocity in each zone of spillway bend. Different from previous study, no circulation zone is formed upstream and downstream of permeable spur dike due to the presence of permeable holes, and the flow upstream of permeable spur dikes could be divided into three distinctly different flow modes according to dye tracing. The presence of permeable spur dikes causes the concentration of TKE zone at concave bank of the spillway bend, except for TKE zone immediately next to the bottom plate. The TKE first increases and then decreases with the increase in the vertical distance from the bottom plate of the spillway bend, exhibiting a typical parabolic distribution. The energy dissipation rate in the spillway bend with permeable spur dike was calculated using a modified integral method, and the dissipation rate can reach as high as 21.08% with three spur dikes installed in the bend.