Estimating Sediment Flushing Efficiency of a Shaft Spillway Pipe and Bed Evolution in a Reservoir

Abstract: Control of reservoir sedimentation in order to ensure their sustainable use has drawn attention among water engineers and water resource managers. Several methods have been proposed, but most of the developed methodologies are incapable of modelling bed evolutions, while at the same time, compute sediment flushing efficiency. In this study a two-dimensional bed evolution model is proposed to estimate sediment distribution, bed evolution and sediment flushing efficiency of reservoirs. A-Gong-Dian reservoir, in southern Taiwan, is used as an illustrative example. Typhoon events were used to verify the proposed model. Simulations were conducted for one and two-day storm events under return periods, 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, and 200-year. The results indicated that the average sediment flushing efficiency of the shaft spillway under one and two-day storms were close, 58.50% and 59.39%, respectively. These results were similar to observed laboratory tests experiments, where an efficiency of 65.34% was obtained. This study suggests that the applied model could be adopted to ensure the sustainable use of reservoirs, and also to find an optimal area for the location of a shaft spillway pipe. Therefore, the proposed model could serve as a reference to the reservoir management personnel.