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Flow aeration, cavity processes and energy dissipation on flat and pooled stepped spillways for embankments

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Abstract

The design floods of several reservoirs were recently re-evaluated and the revised spillway outflow could result in dam overtopping with catastrophic consequences for some embankment structures. Herein a physical study was performed on flat and pooled stepped spillways with a slope typical of embankments \((\uptheta = 26.6^{\circ })\) and four stepped configurations were tested: a stepped spillway with flat horizontal steps, a pooled stepped spillway, and two stepped spillways with in-line and staggered configurations of flat and pooled steps. The focus of the study was on the flow aeration, air–water flow properties, cavity flow processes, and energy dissipation performances. The results demonstrated the strong aeration of the flow for all configurations. On the in-line and staggered configurations of flat and pooled steps, the flow was highly three-dimensional. The residual head and energy dissipation rates at the stepped chute downstream end were calculated based upon the detailed air–water flow properties. The results showed that the residual energy was the lowest for the flat stepped weir. The data for the stepped spillway configuration with in-line and staggered configurations of flat and pooled steps showed large differences in terms of residual head in the transverse direction. Altogether the present results showed that, on a \(26.6^{\circ }\) slope stepped chute, the designs with in-line and staggered configurations of flat and pooled steps did not provide any advantageous performances in terms of energy dissipation and flow aeration, but they were affected by three-dimensional patterns leading to some flow concentration.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Jason Van Der Gevel and Stewart Matthews (The University of Queensland) for their technical assistance. They thank Professor Daniel Bung (FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Germany) and Dr Michael Pfister (EPFL ENAC IIC LCH, Switzerland) for their helpful comments. Some helpful discussion with Dr Masayuki Takahashi (Nihon University, Japan), is acknowledged. The useful comments of all the reviewers are acknowledged. The second writer acknowledges the financial support through a University of Queensland research scholarship. The financial support of the Australian Research Council is acknowledged (Grants ARC DP0878922 & DP120100481).

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  1. School of Civil Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia

    Philipp Guenther, Stefan Felder & Hubert Chanson

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  1. Philipp Guenther
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  2. Stefan Felder
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  3. Hubert Chanson
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Correspondence to Hubert Chanson.

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Guenther, P., Felder, S. & Chanson, H. Flow aeration, cavity processes and energy dissipation on flat and pooled stepped spillways for embankments. Environ Fluid Mech 13, 503–525 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10652-013-9277-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10652-013-9277-4

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