Determination of flow characteristics over sharp-crested triangular plan form weirs using numerical simulation

Abstract

Triangular plan form weirs are one type of long-crested weirs. Therefore, they can pass more discharge capacity than weirs at the given channel width. This study aims to investigate the effects of different number of teeth (3, 4, and 5 teeth), angle of the weir tip (90, 60, 120, and 150 degrees), and the amount of different discharges (0.009–0.0063 m3/s) of sharp-crested triangular plan form weirs on the hydraulic parameters by using the Finite Volume Method (FVM). It was found that, increasing the effective length of the crest, increases the discharge coefficient up to 95% in the case with 5 teeth (L/B = 4.14 and h/W = 0.128), 45% in the case with 4 teeth (L/B = 3.71 and h/W = 0.168) and 39% for 3 teeth (L/B = 3.28 and h/W = 0.188) compared to the simple triangular plan weir (without teeth). Also, Results indicated that the discharge coefficient has an inverse relationship with the h/w ratio. In contrast, the investigations showed that the velocity in the flow jet is affected by the effective length of the triangular plan crest, and the increase in the effective length results in a decrease in the average velocity of the flow jet. So that these disturbances caused the highest dissipation of energy to occur in the triangular plan crest with 5 teeth (27% compared to the upstream section (Section 1) and 37% compared to the downstream section (Section 2)).