New way to dampen the energy of medium- and high-pressure flows

Abstract

The current practice of hydraulic engineering construction applies four methods for damping extra energy of excess water discharge: throwing out the stream into the tailwater; using twisting of the stream in the water passageway, in a water-well, and on a multistage drop; and energy damping in a vertical shaft. The cheapest method is energy damping by throwing the jet into the downstream reservoir. The main disadvantages limiting the use of this method include the need for appropriate topographic conditions in the tailrace basin, strong rocks in the river channel, and the possibility of water throwing at a large distance from the hydropower project, which restricts the use of this method. Extra energy damping with the use of twisting flow in the water passageway requires complex structures, providing for a rotational movement of water and forming a deep vacuum in the outlet conduit. The breaking of vacuum requires a large amount of air, which causes dynamic modes, and its removal complicates the design of energy damping structures. The most reliable way of energy damping is damping in a stilling well. But the disadvantages of water-sucking wells are low efficiency accompanied by an uneven distribution of specific discharges in the inlet section and a sharp increase in the cost at high-pressure hydroelectric installations. The use of multistage cross-fall drastically facilitates the operation of a stilling well and serves as its supplement. Energy damping in a vertical shaft is easy to use. Still, it results in trapping a large amount of air at all operating modes, which has limited its practical use in hydraulic engineering construction. However, the damping of flow energy in a vertical shaft except for possible air supply has shown high efficiency of operation in combination with a diversion water pipe with a reverse slope. A variant of such design of flow energy damping in a vacuum vertical shaft has been developed and studied as applied to conditions of the Rogun hydropower project. Model studies of the design on the scale of 1:100 showed high efficiency and reliability in all possible ranges of discharged flow rates.