Experimental Study of Energy Dissipation over Stepped Spillway with Appendance Elements on the Steps

Steps in the stepped spillway by creating an artificial roughening bed, dissipate the flow of energy more than other types of spillways. An increase of roughness leads to a uniform and continuous distribution energy of the flow over the spillway. The present study deals with experimental study regarding the appendance elements on the steps and its impact on the variation of the flow pattern, inception point, energy dissipation and Darcy roughness coefficient. Experiments were performed on a physical model, with appendance elements on the steps in different configurations and type (height and notch), and the results were compared with flat stepped spillway. The results showed that the appendance elements on the steps causes some the instabilities and turbulence on the center axis and sides of the steps, which causes the inception point to be moved upstream of the stepped spillway. A nappe and transition flow regimes on stepped spillways with appendance elements occur at lower discharges than flat stepped spillway. With notched, the change of the flow regime on the stepped spillway occurs later than in the height state. Also, the appendance elements on the steps have no effect on the energy dissipation and Darcy roughness coefficient. However, with notched on the appendance elements, their performance is improves and the amount of energy dissipation and Darcy roughness coefficient increases 7.33% and 8% compared to flat stepped spillway, respectively