Investigation of simultaneous slope of upstream and downstream ramps on hydraulic performance of rectangular labyrinth weir

Background and objectives: Weirs are one of important hydraulic structures that are constructed to regulate water surface, flow measurement and flood discharge in canals, rivers and reservoirs. According to the shape of crest across river, weirs are divided to two direct and indirect groups. Using labyrinth weir is an effective and economical way to increase discharge capacity. Main goal of labyrinth design of weirs is increase the length of weir by making the shape of it nonlinear. Effective factors on labyrinth weir’s discharge coefficient are important which should be considered. Different parameters affect this characteristic of flow and any change in one of these factors affect the flow condition and discharge coefficient. One of these parameters is downstream and upstream ramps slope of labyrinth weir. This study is concentrated on experimental investigation of simultaneous slope of downstream and upstream ramps’ effect on hydraulic performance of rectangular labyrinth weir.
Materials and methods: In this study 5 models of rectangular labyrinth weir in 4 different ramp slopes were investigated in hydraulic laboratory. Effective parameters on system were obtained by dimensionless indexes using Buckingham theory. Experiments are carried out in flume with rectangular profile, it’s length, width and height are 12, 0.5 and 0.8 meters, respectively and discharge range of 10 to 70 l/s. Weirs under experiments were made of Plexiglas with 10 mm thickness and 2 cycles. Weirs including different heights of 15, 20, 25 cm and different crest’s length of 1.075, 1.275 and 1.675 cm were investigated. In this study 4 different slopes were considered for rectangular labyrinth weir including without slope, 15, 30 and 45 degrees.
Results: Results indicated that in the case of upstream and downstream ramps' simultaneous slope, discharge coefficient decreased up to 7 percent compared to without slope condition. Increasing dimensionless parameter Ht/P leads to decrease discharge coefficient reduction. In the high discharge range, rectangular labyrinth discharge coefficient with upstream and downstream ramps' simultaneous slope is more than without slope condition. Furthermore, results showed that increase of weir height in rectangular labyrinth weir with upstream and downstream ramps' simultaneous slope results in discharge coefficient increase up to 13%. Increase of weir's effective length reduces the discharge coefficient up to 9% in Ht/P ratios that are more than 0.3.
Conclusions: With regard to the conclusion of this study, upstream and downstream ramps simultaneous slope plays an important role in efficiency of rectangular labyrinth weir. So, two ramps simultaneous slope can be used for high discharge in order to improvement of rectangular labyrinth weir's hydraulic efficiency.