الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract The worst enemy of sustainable use of reservoirs is sedimentation. Often the main silting process is the result of settling down of suspended sediments. In shallow reservoirs the flow pattern and the sediment deposition processes are strongly influenced by the reservoir geometry. The trap efficiency of a shallow reservoir depends on the characteristics of the inflowing sediments and the retention time of the water in the reservoir, which in turn are controlled by the reservoir geometry. With the purpose of controlling the sedimentation in shallow reservoirs, the effects of the geometry on flow pattern and deposition processes were investigated with systematic physical experiments and numerical simulations. This allowed identifying ideal off-stream reservoir geometries, which can minimize or maximize the settlement of suspended sediments. The objective was also to gain deeper insight into the physical processes of sedimentation in shallow reservoirs governed by suspended sediments. The systematic experimental investigations were carried out in a 6 m long, and 4 m wide aild 0.3 m deep shallow basin. The influence of the shallow reservoir geometry was studied for the first time by varying the width, the length, and the expansion angle of the basin in the experiments for clear water and with suspended sediment. In total 11 different reservoirs geometries and 4 water depths were analyzed. During the tests several parameters were measured, as 2D surface velocities, 3D velocity profiles, thickness of deposited sediments, and sediment concentration at the inflow and outflow. Crushed walnut shells with a median grain size, d50, of 50 urn, and a density of 1500 kg/rn3 were used to simulate the suspended sediments. After having reached a stable flow pattern with the clear water, velocity measurements were performed. In a second phase, the evolution of the flow and deposition patterns under suspended sediment inflow were investigated. Tests were carried out with durations from 1.5 hours up to 18 hours, in order to follow the morphological evolution. In order to investigate the efficiency of flushing, flushing operations at normal water level as well as with drawdown were examined after the sedimentation tests. Numerical simulations of the laboratory basin were performed and compared with ex |