Finite element analysis of flood discharge atomization based on water–air two-phase flow

Abstract

Flood discharge atomization is a phenomenon of water fog diffusion caused by the discharge of water from a spillway structure, which brings strong wind and heavy rainfall. These unnatural winds and rainfall are harmful for the safe operation of hydropower stations with high water heads. Compared to the method of prototype observations, physical models and mathematical models, which are semi-theoretical and semi-empirical, numerical simulation methods have the advantage of being not limited by a similar scale and are more economical. A finite element model is presented to simulate flood discharge atomization based on water–air two-phase flow in this paper. Equations governing flood discharge atomization are composed of partial differential equations of mass and momentum conservation laws with unknowns for pressure, velocity and the water concentration. The finite element method is used to solve the governing equations by adopting appropriate solution strategies to increase the convergence and numerical stability. Then, the finite element model is applied to a practical project, the Shuibuya hydropower station, which experienced a flood discharge in 2016. Simulation results show that the proposed model can simulate flood discharge atomization with efficient convergence and numerical stability in three dimensions, and good agreement was observed between numerical simulations and prototype observational data. Based on the simulation results, the mechanism of flood discharge atomization was analyzed.