Study of hydraulic characteristics of large dam s spillway (case study: zola dam spillway)

In the past century, various types of the large dams were built on rivers in order to control the water surface flows and supply water needed for domestic, agriculture, industrial sectors, hydroelectric power plants and also for flood control purposes. One of the important hydraulic structures related to this type dam is spillway which plays a key role to discharge safely the flood flow to the downstream of dam without causing any damage to the dam structure; therefore, in large dam s spillway considering the formation of turbulent flow, assessing the pressure and velocity is important. In order to optimize the geometry of spillways, the study of hydraulic performance and pattern of flow past spillways, longitudinal water surface profile is necessary. In the present research, the pattern and characteristics of flow over Zola Dam spillway as a case study are numerically investigated using FLUENT software k-epsilon RNG turbulent model and multi-phase. The VOF method is applied to simulate the free surface flow. The numerical model was verified using physical model results. Comparison of the results of the numerical model with those of the physical model indicates that the numerical model is able to appropriately predict the air-water flow pattern as well as velocity and pressure fields.

Keywords:

Spillway , Hydraulic Behavior , Two Phase Flow , Numerical Model , FLUEN T