Scale Effects on the Discharge Coefficient of Ogee Spillway with an Arc in Plan and Converging Training Walls

Dam spillways are the structures that lead rightly and safely the outflow downstream, so that the dam integrity can be guaranteed. Many accidents with dams have been caused by an inadequate spillway design or insufficient capacity. To accurately respond the hydraulic spillways, designers use physical modeling for designing this kind of structures. The scale effect in the spillway modeling, as a result, leads to the difference between the measured data and the prototype. In this study, an experimental model of Germi-Chay Mianeh dam spillway was made in three 1:100, 1:75, and 1:50 scales. Then, the water level in upstream of the spillway crest was measured in seven discharges and compared to 1:50 scale (basic scale), the percentage of water level difference on the crest was calculated in two physical models with 1:100 and 1:75 scales. Results revealed that as the scales of ogee spillway with an arc in plan and converging training walls decrease using Froude simulation, the effect of viscosity and surface tension increase in turn resulting in decreasing discharge coefficient. In this study, the scale effect in discharge coefficient ogee spillway was stated with K' equation. Using model family approved that the minimum Reynolds and Weber numbers which are 3.1×104 and 270, respectively indicated the minimum scale effect and thus, it is possible to avoid the effect of viscosity and surface tension in ogee spillway with an arc in plan and with converging training walls. Moreover, results obtained from the small scale which has been simulated using Froude simulation could be extrapolated to the prototype.