Experimental study of the presence and elimination of vortices during the discharge of the spillway gates of a dam

摘要

In this paper the results of an experimental study carried out on a physical model of the LA dam spillway (Mexico) are presented. The main objective of this work was to find a device to avoid the formation of a vortex in front of gates during the discharge of the spillway. The case of a battery of three gates, where the two end ones are closed and the middle is completely open, was studied. This has allowed a specific device which eliminates the formation of vortices to be proposed. It consists of a grid placed on the surface of the water in front of a gate. In order to determine the effectiveness of the proposed device, the water pressure fluctuations (at the model) on the gates were recorded with electronic sensors.