Laboratory Study of the Effects of Step Number, Slope and Particle Size on Energy Dissipation in Gabion Stepped Spillways

Gabion stepped weir is a simple hydraulic and environment friendly structure that can be used to dissipate flow energy in different dams or to control downstream erosion of various structures. Most researches have been related to concrete and rigid stepped spillways, so studies on gabion stepped weirs are very small. In this research using the experimental method and physical model various components that affect the energy loss in gabion stepped weirs have been studied and comparisons with other studies by researchers have also been made. The flow passes in gabion stepped weir was carried out both in overflow and inflow (both simultaneously) and the amount of energy dissipation along the structure was calculated based on the energy relation. In this study, completely uniform particles with three diameters ( ) of 10, 25 and 40 mm were used. The height and width of physical models made of gabion stepped weirs were 60 cm and 40 cm respectively, with stairs of 3, 6 and 12 and height of stairs 5, 10 and 20 cm and the slope of the weirs are 1:1, 1:2 and 1:3 (2 and 3 horizontals, 1 vertical). In the gabion stepped weirs, the downward slope of the weir has a negligible impact on the energy dissipation. As the number of steps increases (for constant ), the energy loss decreases. The average diameter of the particles of 10 mm for and the average diameter of the particles of 40 mm for has the highest of relative energy loss.