Experimental Studies on Flow over Labyrinth Weir

Labyrinth spillway is the effective and economical solution to increase the discharge by increasing the spillway crest length without an associated increase in structure width. Use of labyrinth spillway is particularly suited to sites where the spillway width and upstream water surface are limited and larger discharging capacities are required. Weir and spillways designed on the basis of the labyrinth concept may be adopted with facility at sites in which certain constraints render other types unsuitable. Recently, their use is found to be attractive solution for upgrading existing development to satisfy more demanding design flood criteria in the limited waterway. The existing spillway is overcoming its earlier limitations of unusual shape and other complicated flow patterns. Continued efforts are being focused towards development of design curves with different shapes and configurations. The present research primarily aims at evaluating various characteristics of a flow-over labyrinth weir by conducting experimentations at wider range of values for important parameters. This paper deals with experimental study of flow-over labyrinth weir for variation of side wall angles ($\alpha$) from 8 to 30°.