EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF HYDRAULICALLY EFFICIENT PIANO KEY WEIR CONFIGURATION

Abstract

ABSTRACT Piano Key Weirs are modified version of labyrinth weir with innovation to improve discharging capacity and more compatible for constructing on a existing or new spillway with lesser space requirement and structural stability. The objective of this study was to identify the Piano Key Weir in which the maximum discharge capacity at different UW with p (height of weir) could be achieved. To achieve this for different flow conditions, length magnification ratio (L/W) is taken from 3.56 to 7.40. Also, other parameters are taken in different combinations for getting optimum configuration of Piano Key Weir for better performance. With this in view, three phases of experimental campaign on eighteen Piano Key Weir models are reported in this paper. The ratio (r) of Piano Key Weir to linear weir discharge for a given head was seen to be more than one and found to increase with magnification ratio L/W upto a certain limit of h/p ratio. It was also found that performance of ratio of inlet and outlet cell width was best when two cells were of same width. The analysis of discharge coefficient variation is correlated with h/p.