Computer-Aided Design of Ungated Overflow Spillways

Authors: MEHMET ARDIÇLIOĞLU, GÜLDEN GÜLTEPE, TEFARUK HAKTANIR

Abstract: A spillway is an essential component structure of a dam which conveys the excessive flood discharges during routing of flood hydrographs through the reservoir of the dam. The approach channel, the spillway, the chute channel, and a suitable energy dissipating basin at the end make up the flood discharge system. This four-element discharge unit performs the serious task of overpassing the severe floods without causing any serious damage to the dam. The hydraulic design of the approach channel, the spillway, the chute channel, and the stilling basin all require involved computations, including interpolations from various design charts. Therefore, design of these structures requires a huge amount of computational load when performed manually, in a conventional way, which is still a common practice in our country. In this study, a computer program which performs all the computational load for the designs of the approach channel, the ungated (free-fall) spillway, its chute channel, and the dissipating basin of a hydraulic jump type is developed. The output of the program is a possible complete design of all these four elements. The input data format is easy to prepare, and the program lets the user to choose among many alternative designs.

Keywords: Spillway, energy dissipating basin, computer aided design

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