Three-Dimensional Turbulence Simulation of Flow in a V-Shaped Stepped Spillway

An experimental study of the flow pattern in a V-shaped stepped spillway reveals that the flow structure is quite different from that of a traditional stepped spillway. This paper presents the flow structure, which comprises a downstream zone, collision zone, and spiral zone. Notably, the spiral zone includes a spiral core zone and a spiral convolution zone. Within the spiral core zone, a nested zone of spiral flow exists with opposite rotational directions in the inner and outer layers. The flow in a V-shaped stepped spillway is three-dimensional, unlike that in a traditional stepped spillway. Additionally, the k-epsilon turbulence model was used to study the flow structure of a V-shaped stepped spillway. (C) 2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.