Wave Action at Spillways

The height of progressive irregular waves observed to exist downstream from spillways was found to have a normal distribution. The significant wave height depended on Froude number, downstream depth, bed slope, and type of dissipator. The effect of different bed slopes was studied. The statistical distribution of the wave height was observed to be always normal with varying standard deviation, which appears to depend on Froude number. The significant wave height was observed to increase with the decrease of λ₁ (kinetic flow factor). The effect of the downstream depth differed according to bed slope. The wave heights induced downstream from a bucket-type energy dissipator depended on both downstream depth andλ₁. For the minimum wave height, the flow pattern and the mechanism of energy dissipation affected the wave heights.