Pyramidal vortex breakers influences on the flow discharge of morning glory spillway

Abstract

Vortex is the basic obstacle envisaged in the morning glory spillways that can lead to the reduction of spillway efficiency due to decreasing the discharge coefficient. It is well known that the vortex breakers are the best for increasing the discharge coefficient of spillway. In the present study, the physical model of morning glory spillway is constructed to investigate the influence of the number and geometry of pyramidal vortex breakers on discharge coefficient of the spillway. A set of empirical equations are developed as predictors for the discharge coefficient due to pyramidal vortex breakers. Sensitivity analysis is performed to explore efficient parameters on the discharge coefficient. Findings show, a group of six vortex breakers causes a significant increase in the Performance Index for discharge coefficient up to 50.97% in the crest control and an increase up to 16.13% in the orifice control compared to the normal morning glory spillway.

Keywords

• Morning glory spillway
• Vortex
• Discharge coefficient
• Pyramidal vortex breaker