Experimental Study of Hydraulic Performance of Stepped Spillway with a Curve Axis Affected by Downstream Transition Channel slope Changes

Background and Objectives: The purpose of the design of energy dissipaters is to dissipate part of the kinetic energy of the inflowing flow in order to return safely the flow to the downstream channel or river and prevent scour below spillways, chutes and sluices. However, surveys show that despite the numerous researches, there is a lack of research on the comprehensive study of hydraulic performance of stepped spillway with curve axis under downstream transition channel slope variation. Therefore, in this study, several physical models of curve axis stepped spillway with converging training walls were made and the impact of downstream transition channel slope variation on the hydraulic characteristics of this type spillway was assessed.
Materials and Methods: This study was conducted with the aim of investigating the hydraulic performance of stepped spillway with curve axis under downstream transition channel slope variation. The experiments were carried out in a rectangular flume with length of 15 m, height of 1 m and width of 2 m. The experiments were performed at different discharge rates from 0.015 to 2.1 times the design discharge and the physical model was tested under four different transition channel slopes of m=0, m=1:33, m=1:30, and m=1:27.
Results: The results of the experiments indicate that in the converging steeped spillway with downstream transition channel slope variation, by decreasing slope of transition channel, the discharge flood in the maximum head allowed will go up. Also, it is find that in the range of H/Hd = 0.7, the discharge coefficient in the stepped physical model for all transition slopes was less than the smooth USBR model and in the range of 0.7 < H/Hd < 1. 3 there was a good consistency with the USBR model. However, with increasing the total water head, due to the spillway submergence the discharge coefficient for all transition slopes showed a descending trend and the spillway efficiency decreased in compared with the standard USBR ogee spillway. Moreover, the results showed that the models with slope of 0 and 1:33 are two models which can pass the probable maximum flood discharge in the maximum allowable height successfully But, the model dimension of physical model with downstream transition Channel slope of m=1:33 is smaller than that of m=0.Therefore, model with slope of m=1:33 can be selected as the most efficient model.
Conclusion: General qualitative and quantitative results of the present study are summarized as the fallowing:
1- In the converging stepped spillway by increasing total upstream head, the discharge coefficient will go up for each of the transition Channel slope (m) and until the downstream flow is at either supercritical or critical stages, the discharge coefficient is independent of variation of transition Channel slope. By contrast, at the submergence stage for the spillway, the difference in the discharge coefficient can be due to tailwater submergence occurring in the spillway.
2- Energy dissipation over converging stepped spillway decreases with increasing the discharge ratio, but model with smaller amount of transition slope (m) lead to decline more energy dissipation in higher discharge.
3- The model with slope of m=1:33 can be selected as the best model due to it’s ability to pass the probable maximum flood in the Maximum allowable head.