Simulation of downpull forces of leaf gate in high dams

Abstract EN

The downpull forces on high head leaf gates due to underflow conditions are of paramount importance in the design of gate hoist, especially during opening and closing operation.

hence, there is a need to enrich the concept of estimating the hydrodynamic forces caused by the deflection of streamlines along the bottom side of the gate.

in this research, bottom downpull force coefficient of leaf gate in high dams was estimated by the solution of two dimensional navier-stokes equations using standard k-ε turbulence model.

the equations were solved by ansys fluent software using finite volume techniques.

experimental investigations in the hydraulic laboratory in college of engineering/ university of Salahaddin were also conducted so as to calibrate and verify the numerical results.

the evaluated model was used to predict the distributions of the piezometric head on the inclined gate lip surface, top and bottom tunnel walls, and predict the distributions of bottom downpull coefficient in the gate lip considering the effects of many geometric and hydraulic parameters.