Abstract

The channel erosion downstream spillway dams in non-cohesive materials has been analyzed from the viewpoint of methods of similarity and dimension theory. A criteria equation has been resulted connecting the maximum erosion pool with parameters determining this pool: depth of water at the contracted cross section of the hydraulic jump; length of harness in the lower pool of the spillway dam; Froude number at the contracted cross section; Archimedes and Reynolds criterions; coefficient of hydraulic jump flooding. The problem may be formulated as follows: the geometric size of the structure, kinematics and dynamic of the flows in the model are similar to that in the prototype. We have to discover conditions under which the characteristic depth of the local erosion pool in the model would be recomputed into that of the prototype, like any geometric size.

Keyword: spillway dams, channel erosion, non-cohesive materials, methods of similarity and dimension theory, criteria equation, Froudes, Archimedes and Reynolds criterions, depth of the local erosion, model, prototype