Improvement of the theory of shaft spillway calculations

Abstract

Over the last hundred years, shaft spillways have become widely used in hydraulic engineering practice due to their undeniable advantages: high discharge capacity, maximal water consumption per one cubic meter of concrete, point structure compactness. The modern theory of hydraulic calculations was formed based on works on the study of the operation of a circular spillway with a sharp edge carried out by Wagner in 1954. Although numerous hydraulic studies have not proved many of the statements Wagner's calculation methodology was based on, the materials of his studies have been presented in special hydraulic literature for hydraulic calculations up to date. The accepted design conditions of the drainage surface of the spillway shaft, which is round-cylindrical in the cross-section and in the form of a convex parabolic line in the longitudinal section, do not correspond to the possibilities of work. As a result, the drainage surface is replaced by a system of truncated cones, the joints of which cause flow separation from the drainage surface and the formation of vacuum zones. It results in approximate hydraulic calculations. To eliminate these disadvantages of hydraulic calculations and bring design developments in line with technological possibilities of works, it is possible to replace a round-cylindrical cross-section of the inner surface of the shaft with a polygonal one. In this case, the drainage surface will consist of a system of longitudinal wedges with one-dimensional curvature, for which the formwork can be made of flat sheets. This paper presents materials on the calculation and design of a shaft spillway of a hydroelectric complex with a dodecagonal cross-section for Algeria, and four shafts with an octagonal cross-section and two shafts with a tetragonal cross-section for Syria. The receiving hopper head is round-cylindrical, and the drainage surface is elliptical, which allows adapting the drainage surface to any initial design parameters of shaft spillways.