Two-dimensional numerical modeling of sediment transport in a dam reservoir to analyze the feasibility of a water intake

Abstract

The present work is related to the study of a water intake projected into a dam reservoir, located in northern Morocco. The object sought is to examine the natural conditions surrounding a water intake and their possible repercussions on its operation. Thus, a two-dimensional numerical model is developed to simulate the sediment transport in a reservoir dam. The developed model consists of hydrodynamic module based on the Saint–Venant equations and sediment transport module based on the mass-balance equation, where there are resolved by a MacCormack numerical scheme and upwind scheme, respectively. The analysis using the numerical model has made it possible to predict the shutdown periods of the drinking water production station with respect to the rate of suspended solids (SS) for extreme rainfall events.