Senior CFD Applications Engineer Flow Science Santa Fe, New Mexico
Spillway ratings allow dam owners and operators to determine the discharge that is being released from their service spillways. Service spillways can have either a gated controlled discharge or an ungated free discharge. Either case requires an accurate head-discharge relationship to represent the actual flow being released under a range of reservoir elevations and gate operations.
When service spillway gates are present, the relationship between reservoir elevation and discharge becomes complicated, and standardized rating curves may not be suitable. In these cases, a physical model or 3D CFD simulation can be used to develop site-specific rating curves to analyze all potential combinations of gate openings and reservoir elevations.
This paper will present both CFD and physical modeling efforts to determine spillway ratings for a recent project at the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Cost, time, benefits and drawbacks for each approach are provided.
