Numerical Simulation of Uniform Flow Region over a Steeply Sloping Stepped Spillway

Stepped spillways have gained much interest in recent decades because of their compatibility with Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) dams. Hydraulics of stepped spillways is not simple considering different flow regimes and regions along the chute. Estimation of flow characteristics on the stepped chutes is presently carried out by using some empirical formulae and physical modeling. However, this can be improved by application of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models. In this paper, flow characteristics within the uniform region of Javeh stepped spillway, located on the body of a RCC dam, was computed by a commercial CFD program. A comparison of the numerical and physical model results showed a relatively good agreement. The study indicates that the turbulence numerical simulation is an effective and useful method for the complex stepped spillway overflow

Keywords:

Hydraulic Structures , Stepped Spillways , Flow Characteristics , Numerical modelling , FLOW-3D