Experimental Investigation of Effects of Piles on Hydraulic Performance and Discharge Coefficient of Semi Circular Labyrinth Side Weir with One Cycle

Side weirs are hydraulic structures installing on the side walls of the channels to divert excess water of main channel. Labyrinth weirs are broken in their plans; so, they have more effective length and in some conditions have more discharge coefficient than that of simple ones. In this research, the effects of piles with different arrangements on discharge coefficient of semi-circular labyrinth side weir have been studied. The experiments were carried out in a rectangular channel with subcritical flow with Froude number range equal to 0.1-0.37. Three diameters were considered for semi-circular labyrinth side weirs with constant height. The piles used in the study were cylindrical and the same height of the side weir. The number of piles varied from 1 to 3, and fourteen arrangements were considered for them. First of all, the effects of dimensionless parameters, obtained from the Buckingham method, on side weir discharge coefficient were studied and then a relationship, with acceptable accuracy, between these parameters was obtained to predict the discharge coefficient of semi-circular labyrinth side weir with piles.. The results,  compared with semi-circular labyrinth side weir without piles, showed that semi-circular labyrinth side weir with arrangements of piles have higher discharge coefficient. In fact, piles proved an improvement in the performance of semi-circular side weirs, so that within the range of the studied Froude number, the discharge coefficient faced an increase up to 15% and specific energy changes faced a decrease up to 34%. The most increase in discharge coefficient and the most decrease in specific energy changes occurd when three piles were installed at the downstream end of weirs.