Effect of experimental and mathematical modeling of spillway on dam safety

Abstract

In this paper, hydraulic characteristics of Yedigöze Dam and Hydroelectric Power Plant (HEPP), which are producing energy in Turkey, were investigated experimentally by physical model studies. The 1/70-scaled physical model was used in conducting experiments. Flow depth, discharge and pressure data were recorded for different flow conditions. Serious modification was made on the original project with the experimental study. In this study, in order to evaluate the capability of the computational fluid dynamics on modeling spillway flow a comparative study was also made by using results obtained from physical modeling and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. Discharge rating curves, velocity patterns and pressures were used to compare the results of the physical model and the numerical model. It was shown that there were many modifications needed after project design with experimental and numerical study and there is reasonably good agreement between the physical and numerical models in flow characteristics.