Case Study: Delayed Sedimentation Response to Inflow and Operations at Sanmenxia Dam
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 133, Issue 5
Abstract
This paper presents a study on the reservoir sedimentation processes in response to changes in incoming flow at the upstream and changes in the pool level at the downstream for Sanmenxia Reservoir, which is located on the middle reach of the Yellow River in China and has experienced serious sedimentation problems even since its impoundment in 1960. The hysteresis effect in reservoir sedimentation was used as the basis for analysis and its behavior was fully investigated throughout this study. The research found that the rise in the elevation of Tongguan, which is located in the backwater region at a distance of upstream of the Sanmenxia Dam, had a time delay of about compared with the sediment deposition in the reservoir area downstream of Tongguan. Moreover the accumulated sediment deposition in the reservoir area was closely related not only to the current year’s flow and dam operational conditions, but also to the preceding ’ flow and dam operational conditions. Likewise the variation of Tongguan’s elevation was a function of ’ linearly superimposed runoff, and the channel bed slope in the vicinity of Tongguan was determined by a moving average pool level over a period. The research results are of practical importance in particular for optimizing the operation of Sanmenxia Dam, and the finding of the hysteresis phenomenon in the sedimentation process of the reservoir is of merit to the advancement of sedimentation science.
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Acknowledgments
This study was sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Yellow River Conservancy Commission, Ministry of Water Resources, P. R. China (Grant No. 50239040) and supported by the Creative Research Team Foundation of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. NNSFC50221903).
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 133 • Issue 5 • May 2007
Pages: 482 - 494
Copyright
© 2007 ASCE.
History
Received: Sep 12, 2005
Accepted: Aug 28, 2006
Published online: May 1, 2007
Published in print: May 2007
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