Numerical Detection of Cavitation Damage on Dam Spillway
Abstract: The present paper
deals with the numerical detection of cavitation damage level and location on
dam spillways. At first, flow over a spillway was simulated using the
computational fluid dynamics method. The flow characteristics such as pressure,
velocity and depth through the spillway have been calculated for five different
flow rates. Since the actual flow is turbulent, the RNG turbulence model has
been used for simulation. The numerical results of flow characteristics including
flow depth, velocity and pressure were compared with the available results of
the hydraulic model tests. The numerical results agreed well with the
experimental data, and reasonable values for the normalized root mean square
error (NRMSE= 0.0476) and coefficient of determination (r2=0.8354) indicated
that the numerical model is accurate. Finally occurrence of cavitation damage
to the Doosti dam spillway was investigated. Based on cavitation index, five
different damage levels from no damage to major damage have been considered.
Results showed that the spillway may be at the risk of cavitation damage, and
the serious damage can occur at ending parts of the structure.
Author: E Fadaei-Kermani, G. A
Barani, M Ghaeini-Hessaroeyeh
Journal Code: jptsipilgg160051
