Energy Dissipation down a Stepped Spillway with Nonuniform Step Heights
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 137, Issue 11
Abstract
Although most stepped spillway–design guidelines were developed for uniform step heights, a nonuniform stepped design might be a practical alternative in some cases. A physical study was conducted in a moderate slope-stepped chute (1V:2H) and five stepped configurations were tested for . Detailed air-water flow measurements were performed for each configuration and the results were compared in terms of flow patterns, energy dissipation, and flow resistance. The basic findings showed minor differences between all configurations and indicated that the rate of energy dissipation was about the same for uniform and nonuniform stepped configurations. But the observations suggested that the nonuniform stepped configurations might induce some flow instabilities for smaller flow rates.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The writers thank Dr. Jorge Matos (IST Lisbon) for his valuable comments. The financial support of the Australian Research Council (Grant ARCDP0878922) is acknowledged.
References
Carosi, G., and Chanson, H. (2008). “Turbulence characteristics in skimming flows on stepped spillways.” Can. J. Civ. Eng., 35(9), 865–880.
Chamani, M. R., and Rajaratnam, N. (1999). “Characteristics of skimming flow over stepped spillways.” J. Hydraul. Eng., 125(4), 361–368.
Chanson, H. (1995). Hydraulic design of stepped cascades, channels, weirs and spillways, Pergamon, Oxford, UK.
Chanson, H. (2001). “The hydraulics of stepped chutes and spillways.” Balkema, Lisse, Netherlands.
Chanson, H., and Toombes, L. (2002). “Air-water flows down stepped chutes: Turbulence and flow structure observations.” Int. J. Multiphase Flow, 28(11), 1737–1761.
Chanson, H., Yasuda, Y., and Ohtsu, I. (2002). “Flow resistance in skimming flows and its modelling.” Can. J. Civ. Eng., 29(6), 809–819.
Felder, S., and Chanson, H. (2009). “Energy dissipation, flow resistance and gas-liquid interfacial area in skimming flows on moderate-slope stepped spillways.” Environ. Fluid Mech., 9(4), 427–441.
Gonzalez, C. A., and Chanson, H. (2007). “Experimental measurements of velocity and pressure distribution on a large broad-crested weir.” Flow Meas. Instrum., 18(3–4), 107–113.
Hansen, K. D., and Reinhardt, W. G. (1991). Roller-compacted concrete dams, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Matos, J. (2000). “Hydraulic design of stepped spillways over RCC dams.” Int. Workshop on Hydraulics of Stepped Spillways, H. E. Minor and W. H. Hager, eds., Balkema, Zürich, Switzerland, 187–194.
Meireles, I., and Matos, J. (2009). “Skimming flow in the nonaerated region of stepped spillways over embankment dams.” J. Hydraul. Eng., 135(8), 685–689.
Sorensen, R. M. (1985). “Stepped spillway hydraulic model investigation.” J. Hydraul. Eng., 111(12), 1461–1472.
Stephenson, D. (1988). “Stepped energy dissipators.” Proc., Int. Symp. on Hydraulics for High Dams, Int. Association for Hydraulic Research, Madrid, Spain, 1228–1235.
Thorwarth, J., and Köngeter, J. (2006). “Physical model tests on a stepped chute with pooled steps—Investigations of flow resistance and flow instabilities.” Proc., Int. Symp. on Hydraulic Structures, A. Marcano and A. Martinez, eds., Int. Association for Hydraulic Research, Madrid, Spain, 477–486.
Toombes, L., and Chanson, H. (2008). “Flow patterns in nappe flow regime down low gradient stepped chutes.” J. Hydraul. Res., 46(1), 4–14.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 137 • Issue 11 • November 2011
Pages: 1543 - 1548
Copyright
© 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 16, 2010
Accepted: May 10, 2011
Published online: May 12, 2011
Published in print: Nov 1, 2011
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.