Abstract
Abstract Spillways are constructed to evacuate flood discharge safely so that a flood wave does not overtop the dam body. There are different types of spillways, with the ogee type being the conventional one. A stepped spillway is an example of a nonconventional spillway. The turbulent flow over a stepped spillway was studied numerically by using the Flow-3D package. Different fluid flow characteristics such as longitudinal flow velocity, temperature distribution, density and chemical concentration can be well simulated by Flow-3D. In this study, the influence of slope changes on flow characteristics such as air entrainment, velocity distribution and dynamic pressures distribution over a stepped spillway was modelled by Flow-3D. The results from the numerical model were compared with an experimental study done by others in the literature. Two models of a stepped spillway with different discharge for each model were simulated. The turbulent flow in the experimental model was simulated by the Renormalized Group (RNG) turbulence scheme in the numerical model. A good agreement was achieved between the numerical results and the observed ones, which are exhibited in terms of graphics and statistical tables.
Highlights
Dam structures are the most important projects around the world to store water or to transport water because protection of water is the key to living
The air concentration distribution profiles in two models of stepped spillway were obtained at an acquisition time equal to 25 seconds in skimming flow for both upstream and downstream of a slope change 50–18.6 and [50–30] for different discharge as in Table 2, and as shown in Figure 4 for 50–18.6 slope change and Figure 5 for [50–30] slope change configuration for dc/h 1⁄4 4.6
The simulation results of the air concentration are very close to the experimental results in all curves and fairly close to that predicted by the advection-diffusion model for the air bubbles suggested by Chanson ( ) on a constant sloping chute
Summary
Dam structures are the most important projects around the world to store water or to transport water because protection of water is the key to living. The spillway is classified as one of the most important parts of a dam. A spillway is constructed to protect a dam from destruction or damage by flood. Dam building and flood control can be considered a very important issue across the world given the importance. A large number of stepped spillways were constructed through the recent decades, as especially associated with the technique of roller compacted concrete (RCC) dam construction and construction of stepped
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