Numerical study on discharge capacity of piano key side weir with various ratios of the crest length to the width

Abstract

Abstract A side or lateral weir can be defined as a longitudinal weir put in parallel to the main flow direction. A piano key side weir (PKSW) is one of the various side weirs used to control flow level, flow diversion, and flood harm prevention in dams and hydraulic systems. A side weir aims to keep the water level in the main channel at a specific level by discharging the overflow water into a side channel. The discharge coefficient of the PKSW was covered in this study by numerical modeling of a rectangular PKSW type B with various ratios of the crest length to the width in a straight channel. Results showed that the discharge coefficient of the PKSW was more affected by the L/W parameter when the other parameters were constant. It was noted that the PKSW discharge coefficient for L/W equal to 6 demonstrated a significantly higher level of performance and also found that increasing the upstream head above the side weir crest (h a/P) negatively affected the coefficient of discharge. It was concluded that a high capacity of the discharge coefficient required the (h a/P) ratio to be smaller than 0.75 or within the range (0.3 ≤ h a/P < 0.75).