Journal of Hydraulic Engineering

Slit-check dams are widely employed in mountain river control. However an analysis of their performance in the field is still lacking. In the present work a field verification to evaluate the interaction between solid discharge regime and four slit-check dams built in two subcatchments of the Versilia River in Tuscany, Italy is presented. The analysis is based on a relatively detailed field knowledge consisting of hydrological, topographical, and sedimentological data, together with a recent model proposed by Armanini and Larcher. Slit-check dam efficiency is analyzed in terms of deposit formation during major floods and its influence on long-term sediment transport regime. Results suggest that the design efficiency is affected by the high sediment trapping capacity associated with the relatively minor floods. A comparison between the deposit geometry predicted by the theory and the field measurements gathered during a systematic monitoring activity shows good agreement.

Scour of rock may occur downstream of dam spillways, as a result of the impact of high-velocity jets. The phenomenon is traditionally assessed by means of (semi-) empirical methods. These partially neglect basic physical processes responsible for rock mass breakup. Therefore, a model to evaluate the ultimate depth and time evolution of scour in jointed rock is presented. The model is based on near-prototype scaled experimental investigations of transient water pressures in artificially created rock joints and on a numerical modeling of the measured pressures. It describes two different ways of rock mass destruction, i.e., failure by instantaneous or progressive breakup of closed-end rock joints, and failure by dynamic ejection of single rock blocks. The corresponding computational methods are easily applicable to practice, without neglecting relevant physics. The basic principles are outlined and applied to the well-known scour hole at Cabora-Bassa Dam.

An integral model is developed to describe sedimentation from a turbulent, buoyant jet injected at an angle into a stationary, uniform ambient fluid. Entrainment is modeled using the standard entrainment assumption and sediment is assumed to fall from the jet where the outward component of the fall velocity normal to the jet boundary exceeds the inward entrainment velocity. When appropriately scaled by source momentum and buoyancy fluxes, turbulent, buoyant jets may be described in terms of a single parameter: the angle ${\theta }_0$ between the flow and the horizontal at the virtual origin (which is close to the actual source for large initial densimetric Froude numbers). Including sedimentation in the model introduces a further parameter $w_s$ , which is the ratio of the fall speed of the sedimenting particles to a typical entrainment velocity (and so $w_S$ is a nondimensional fall speed). An important result is that this ratio is independent of the source speed, so that the proportion of the sediment load deposited near the source is independent of the flow rate. Sediment remaining in the plume beyond the near-source region is deposited when the plume spreads horizontally once it reaches the free surface. Results for plume shapes, deposition patterns, and the proportion of sediment load deposited in the near-source region (as functions of $\theta$ and $w_s$ ) are given. The results are supported by some preliminary laboratory experiments. The effects of flow in the ambient fluid are discussed briefly and a further parameter $u_F$ is introduced, which is the ratio of the ambient flow speed to a typical entrainment velocity (again this ratio is independent of the flow rate).

Transverse exchange of momentum between the channel and the floodplain in straight uniform compound channel flow is considered in this paper. This process results in the so-called “kinematic effect,” a lowering of the total discharge capacity of a compound channel compared to the case where the channel and the floodplain are considered separately. The mechanisms responsible for the momentum exchange are considered. The transverse shear stress in the mixing region is modeled using a newly developed effective eddy viscosity concept, that contains: (1) the effects of horizontal coherent structures moving on an uneven bottom, taking compression and stretching of the vortices into account and (2) the effects of the three-dimensional bottom turbulence. The model gives a good prediction of the transverse profiles of the streamwise velocity and the transverse shear stress of the flood channel facility experiments. Characteristic features of the lateral profile of the eddy viscosity are also well predicted qualitatively, but in a quantitative sense there is room for improvement. Secondary circulations are shown to be of minor importance in straight uniform compound channel flows.

Aeration of water downstream of weirs is caused by air being carried by the overfalling jet into the downstream receiving pool. The air entrainment characteristics of straight weirs have been measured and analyzed by a number of investigators. However, labyrinth weirs, where the weir sill is not straight in planform, thus increasing their length, have received little attention in this respect. This paper investigates the effect of varying the weir-included angle and the weir sill slope on the air entrainment rate of a triangular labyrinth weir. It is demonstrated that the air entrainment rate of a triangular labyrinth weir is better than that of an equivalent straight weir and that this advantage becomes more pronounced as the weir sill slope increases. Regression equations were obtained for triangular labyrinth weirs relating the air entrainment rate to drop height, weir discharge, weir-included angle, and weir sill slope.

Sampling design (SD) for water distribution systems (WDS) is an important issue, previously addressed by various researchers and practitioners. Generally, SD has one of several purposes. The aim of the methodologies developed and presented here is to find the optimal set of network locations for pressure loggers, which will be used to collect data for the calibration of a WDS model. First, existing SD approaches for WDS are reviewed. Then SD is formulated as a multiobjective optimization problem. Two SD models are developed to solve this problem, both using genetic algorithms (GA) as search engines. The first model is based on a single-objective GA (SOGA) approach in which two objectives are combined into one using appropriate weights. The second model uses a multiobjective GA (MOGA) approach based on Pareto ranking. Both SD models are applied to two case studies (literature and real-life problems). The results show several advantages and one disadvantage of the MOGA model when compared to SOGA. A comparison of the MOGA SD model solution to the results of several published SD models shows that the Pareto optimal front obtained using MOGA acts as an envelope to the Pareto fronts obtained using previously published SD models.

The oscillatory flows in pipeline systems due to excitation by valve operation are efficiently analyzed by the impulse response method. The impact of leakage is incorporated into the transfer functions of the complex head and discharge. Frequency-dependent friction is used to consider the impact of unsteady friction for laminar condition. Extensive development of the impulse response method was made by considering the sources of friction associated with the local and convective acceleration of velocity for turbulent flow. The genetic algorithm was integrated into the impulse response method to calibrate the location and the quantity of leakage. The calibration function for leakage detection can be made using the pressure-head response at the valve, or the pressure-head and flow response at the section upstream from the valve. The proposed leak detection algorithm shows the potentials for being applied to a simple pipeline system with a single leak or multiple leaks.

A mathematical model is presented for a constant-head test performed in a partially penetrating well with a finite-thickness skin. The model uses a no-flow boundary condition for the casing and a constant-head boundary condition for the screen to represent the partially penetrating well. The Laplace-domain solutions for the dimensionless flow rate at the wellbore and the hydraulic heads in the skin and formation zones are derived using the Laplace and finite Fourier cosine transforms. The solutions of hydraulic heads have been shown to satisfy the governing equations, related boundary conditions, and continuity requirements for the pressure head and flow rate at the interface of the skin zone and undisturbed formation. In addition, an efficient algorithm for evaluating those solutions is also presented. The dimensionless flow rates obtained from new solutions have been shown to be better than those of Novakowski’s solutions, especially when the penetration ratio is large.

The analysis of three different approximations of the turbulent diffusion terms, widely used to simulate shallow water flows, is carried out both analytically and experimentally. Based on the eddy viscosity concept, the terms are solved for steady, uniform, turbulent flow in a simplified geometry, which may represent a tidal estuary or a compound channel. It is shown that, although the three approximations are identical in constant depth, they behave differently if strong depth gradients exist and, consequently, the transverse velocity profile obtained varies depending on the turbulence term used. It is also shown that the relative depth (flood plain depth-to-main channel depth ratio) has an important influence on the lateral momentum transfer and, consequently, depending on the approximation adopted, different dimensionless eddy viscosity coefficient $\lambda$ values must be used to best fit the experimental data. A tentative relationship between the relative depth and the dimensionless eddy viscosity coefficient is presented for each expression. Comparison of analytical results with experimental data shows that not all the widely used expressions for the turbulence terms can adequately represent the velocity profile if strong depth gradients exist.