Experimental study and numerical simulation of dam reservoir sediment release

Abstract

In this research, experimental and numerical modelling of three-phase air, water, and sediment transport flow, due to the opening of a sluice gate was conducted in two scenarios, i.e., with and without a triangular obstacle. Numerical simulation was conducted using the Navier-Stokes equations with the aid of the volume of fluid method (VOF) to track the free surface of the fluid. For the experimental model, a glass-enclosed flume with 150 × 30 × 50 cm dimensions was used. The experiment was performed for an initial height of the water column at 20 cm and 10 cm sediment column. To evaluate the numerical model's performance, the simulation results were compared with the experimental observations using the average relative error %. The amount of relative error between experimental observations and numerical simulations, for the position and height of the wave flow for the three-phase air, water, and sediment flow, were obtained as 2.64% and 4.51% for the position and height of the water wave, and 2.23% and 2.82% for the position and height of the sediment transport, respectively, for the ‘without obstacle’ scenario, and 3.77% and 5.25% for the position and height of the water wave, and 2% and 7.23% for the position and height of the sediment transport, respectively, for the ‘with obstacle’ scenario. The findings of the study indicate the appropriate performance of the numerical model in the simulation of water and sediment wavefront advance, and also its weakness in the estimation of wave height.