Engineering Commons^™

Piano Key Weir For Enlargement Of The West Fork Of Eno River Reservoir, B. M. Crookston, Loring Crowley, Michael Pfister

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

The West Fork of Eno River Reservoir Dam is located near Hillsborough, North Carolina, USA. The earthen embankment dam provides an impoundment used by the town for water supply. The project was originally completed in 2000 with forethought by the owner for an expansion, which was anticipated in the original design. Currently, the design of that expansion to raise the reservoir level for increased water supply is underway. Following a detailed analysis of viable upgrades, a piano key (PK) weir (anticipated as the first to be constructed in the USA) was selected by the owner due to its effectiveness in …

Numerical Modeling Of The Spillways For The Dam Raise At Isabella Dam, Laurie L. Ebner, S K. Askelson, E A. Thompson, Nathan C. Cox

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

The Sacramento District Corps of Engineers is designing modifications to the Isabella Dam located on the KernRiver in the Tulare Lake Basin in the southern portion of the San Joaquin Basin, in Kern County, California. These modifications include: raising the elevation of two high head dams (185 ft and 100 ft respectively) by 16 ft;modifying a service spillway to better suit the needs of flood capacity, and creating a new labyrinth weir emergency spillway. To aid in the design of both spillways, a series of three-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics(CFD) models of the Isabella Reservoir and outlet works were developed. …

Sensitivity Analysis For Discharge Coefficients Of Piano Key Weirs, M. Oertel

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

Piano Key Weirs are relatively new weir structures which can be used as flood release structure at the top of a dam or as regular weir structure within a river system. The benefit of a PKW is an increased discharge capacity, and hence lower free surface heads at the upstream reservoir. During the last years several experimental and numerical research investigations were carried out to analyze discharge coefficients for various PKW types. Therefore, numerical 3D CFD codes and small-scaled experimental models were used. To identify discharge coefficients the Poleni formula can be used. By measuring the total discharge and the …

The Hydraulic Design Of An Arced Labyrinth Weir At Isabella Dam, E. A. Thompson, N. C. Cox, Laurie Ebner, Blake Tullis

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

The Sacramento District Corps of Engineers is designing modifications to the Isabella Dam located in Kern County, California. These modifications include creating a new arced labyrinth weir emergency spillway in order to safely pass the probable maximum flood (PMF).

The rating curve for the arced labyrinth weir was based upon information published in a PhD dissertation (Crookston, 2010), and a Master’s Thesis (Christensen, 2012) from Utah State University and a subsequent journal article (Crookston and Tullis 2012). The proposed prototype weir geometry was a 12-cycle arced labyrinth weir with a 16º sidewall angle. As the published hydraulic performance data were …

Towards A New Design Equation For Piano Key Weirs Discharge Capacity, H. Bashiri, B. Dewals, M. Pirotton, P. Archambeau, S. Erpicum

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

No abstract provided.

Influence Of Some Geometrical Parameters On Piano Key Weir Discharge Efficiency, G. M. Cicero

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

The Piano Key Weir (PKW) is a type of labyrinth weir with efficient hydraulic performance especially at low heads.Since the primary parameters were extensively studied, Electricité De France (EDF) launched a new experimental program to improve the knowledge of some secondary parameters such as the overhangs, the crest shape and the dam height. This program included the testing of a trapezoidal shape and of PKWs under submerged conditions.The data measured under free-flow conditions were also used to validate empirical correlations and numerical models Wolf 1D PKW and Flow 3D. This article gives an overview of the program and highlights the …

Mouth Of The Columbia River North Jetty Erosion Stabilization, C. C. Humphrey, B. J. Abel, H. R. Moritz

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

The mouth of the Columbia River (MCR), located at the river’s confluence with the Pacific Ocean between Oregon and Washington, is a critical regional and national gateway for trade and commerce. The MCR is protected and stabilized by three rubble-mound jetties, all of which are in need of major rehabilitation. In 2014 rehabilitation starting with construction of the North Jetty Lagoon Fill project.

Soon after construction of the North Jetty in 1917, deposition of sand caused the formation of a wide beach along the north side of the jetty, which helped protect much of the north side of the jetty …

Assessment Of Equilibrium Scour By A Submerged Circular Turbulent Impinging Jet In Cohesive Soils, Mahmud Rashedul Amin, Kerry Mazurek

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

In this paper, results from a study where detailed measurements of the time development of the scour holes produced by a submerged circular vertical impinging jet in cohesive soils from long-term scour tests are presented. This type of jet is the one used in the ASTM standard Jet Erodiblity Test, which relies on measurements of the time development of scour for prediction of soil erodibility parameters. In the experiments, measurements of the entire scour hole were taken on a 2 mm grid using a computer-controlled laser displacement meter after scouring times of 5 min, 10 min, 15 min, 20 min, …

Articulating Concrete Blocks: The Long And Winding Road, J. A. Nadeau

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

This paper will provide an overview of Articulating Concrete Blocks (ACB’s) from three perspectives: 1. the Manufacturer, 2. The Engineer and 3. The Researcher and how these independent entities interact with each other and the regulatory community to further the scientific understanding and use of ACB systems. ACB’s, since their development in the late 1970’s, represent a growing choice of design engineers in economically solving their critical erosion prevention problems as well as a variety of other non-hydraulic applications. Typical applications of ACB’s are found in protecting channels and canals, dam spillways and embankments, bridge piers and abutments, river bank …

Scouring Processes Downstream A Crossbar Block Ramp, M. Oertel, Daniel Bung

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

Crossbar block ramps are hydraulic structures to conquer large river bottom steps via several pool-step-systems. Due to reduced velocities and increased flow depths, fish climb capability can be given. Several authors investigated crossbar block ramp variations to determine flow resistance, energy dissipation and bed stability features on the structure. But also the downstream end of the structure must be taken into account concerning scouring processes to guarantee the structure’s stability and to reduce damage during flood events. The present paper presents a comprehensive experimental investigation program dealing with scouring processes downstream a crossbar block ramp. Influences by ramp slope, discharge …

Visual And Photogrammetric Observations Of An Internal Erosion Failure, T. L. Wahl, R. V. Rinehart, M. J. Klein, J. B. Rittgers

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

A 0.91-m (3-ft) high, homogeneous, silty clay embankment was tested to investigate erosion processes occurring during failure by internal erosion. The embankment was constructed in a 3.79-m (12.44-ft) wide test flume equipped with a clear acrylic viewing window at the abutment where failure was initiated. Failure was initiated at mid-height when an embedded 12-mm (½-inch) diameter rebar was removed from the embankment. The test lasted approximately 48 minutes, and during that time the erosion pipe enlarged dramatically. The test was stopped just before the collapse of the soil bridge over the enlarged pipe.

Erosion was visually monitored during the test …

Shear Stress Distribution Prediction In Circular Channels Using Tsallis Entropy, H. Bonakdari, Z. Sheikh Khozani

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

Detailed knowledge of flow and shear stress distribution in channels is essential in accurately calculating the rates of sediment transport and deposition for geomorphic adjustment. Circular cross sections are usual in sewer channels and the sedimentation of suspended material is a significant matter in such sections. In this study, an analytical model is extended to predict the shear stress distribution in circular channels based Tsallis entropy concept. A new formula for estimating shear stress distribution in circular channels is derived by maximizing the Tsallis entropy subject to mass conservation. The distribution derived from the Tsallis entropy is examined using experimental …

Folsom Dam Auxiliary Spillway – Design Innovations And Construction Lessons Learned, C. Y. Wan, C. M. Nolan

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

The new Folsom Dam Auxiliary Spillway gated Control Structure, part of the overarching Joint Federal Project, was recently completed. To make operation and maintenance activities for this activity more user-friendly, this project implemented innovative designs, and a select few related to the tainter gate (seals, dogging system, and anchor inspection access) are presented in this paper. This project also provided additional monitoring capacity to the trunnion anchors, both during and post-construction, both physical and data, with great results. Further, this paper discusses some lessons learned on tainter gate specifications during gate construction and installation. Building and bridge construction specifications were …

Discharge Correlations For Spillways With Radial Gates, Gerald A. Schohl

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

Equations used at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to compute free and gated (orifice) discharges through spillways with radial gates are presented along with correlations based on TVA model test data for discharge coefficients and submergence factors. The correlations and data may be applicable for estimating discharges through gated spillways that are similar to those at TVA and for which specific model test data are unavailable. Included in this paper, perhaps for the first time in the literature, are correlations and data indicating for given gate opening the headwater at which flow begins the transition from free discharge to gated …

State-Of-The-Practice Review Of Maintenance Closure Structures For Large Spillway Gates, C. M. Johnson, R. T. Indri, F. G. Snider, S. M. Planck, K. F. De Lapp

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

Maintenance, remediation, and inspection of large spillway gates are best performed in a dry, dewatered state due to reduced overall cost, worker safety, and improved work quality. Provision for gate dewatering has become a key design consideration for new spillways. Unfortunately, many existing spillways were not originally constructed with gate dewatering capabilities. Therefore, maintenance and inspection work has often been scheduled during planned drawdowns or seasonally low reservoir levels. However, for operators of hydroelectric, flood control, water supply, and multi-purpose dams, artificial drawdowns can significantly impact operations, flood protection, downstream habitat, and revenue generation. Aging gates deteriorate and require significant …

Advanced Gate Operation Strategies In Hec-Ras 5.0, C. R. Goodell

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

The Hydrologic Engineering Center’s River Analysis System (HEC-RAS) is designed for computing water surface profiles and inundation maps, but it is also able to handle flow through gated structures using a variety of equation sand techniques. HEC-RAS has a small selection of built-in gate types, representing some of the more common gates that are used for controlling flow at dams and canal structures. Each gate type in HEC-RAS has a set of empirical equations that are used to compute head loss through the structure for a given flow. There are also two operational schemes that can be chosen for gates: …

Designing A Steel Gate Dam Across An Ephemeral River – Tempe Town Lake Dam Design, Stewart S. Vaghti, Dean B. Durkee, Andrew J. Lynch

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

After the existing Tempe Town Lake downstream dam failed unexpectedly in 2010, the City of Tempe, AZ, USA was tasked with designing and constructing a replacement dam to maintain their lake, pass flows in the ephemeral Salt River, and deliberately lower to avert flooding. Through an alternatives evaluation process, a hydraulically operated steel gate system was selected from a field of twenty studied alternative configurations to replace the existing rubber bladder system.

The gate design produced eight 32.3 meter (106 foot) long, 6.4 meter (21 foot) tall, and 118,000 kilogram (260,000 pound) steel gates operated by single-acting hydraulic cylinders and …

Usace Portland District Spillway Gate Rehabilitation Program, Laurie Ebner, William Fortuny, David Hamernik, Matthew Hess, Mark Sawka

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Portland District has 90 spillway radial Tainter gates. There are 42 gates at the 11 Willamette Valley Basin projects, 5 gates at the two Rogue Basin projects and 43 gates at the two Columbia River projects. Since 2001 there have been various studies, inspections and incidents that have prompted the Portland District to become concerned about the structural integrity and mechanical and electrical reliability of these gates. In 2008, load induced buckling was observed on three of the four Tainter gate end frames at Foster Dam which led to emergency repairs. Additional observations …

Hydraulic Structures-The Future Of Design, Thomas North

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

The state of the art of design of hydraulic structures is changing rapidly. Although hydraulic structures include a broad spectrum of applications, there is an increasing need for specialization in planning, design, materials, construction, risk and hazard assessment, aging infrastructure, and lifecycle maintenance.

Today’s role of hydraulic structures involves improving water management practices, water quality, and environmental restoration and protection. Hydraulic design has expanded to include water planning as well as improvements in the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of locks, dams, spillways, and outlet works. The challenges affecting planning and design involve understanding the role of government policies, economics, …

Numerical Investigation Of Usbr Type Iii Stilling Basin Performance Downstream Of Smooth And Stepped Spillways, Daniel Valero, Daniel Bung, Brian M. Crookston, Jorge Matos

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

Recent systematic studies on air-water flows have included stepped spillways. However, to date little has been investigated about how the hydraulic conditions on the stepped spillway may affect the design of traditional energy dissipation structures. In this paper, both smooth chute and stepped chute configurations terminating with the USBR type III stilling basin are tested by means of numerical modelling, allowing a qualitative comparison. Unsteady RANS equations have been employed altogether with VOF and RNG k-ε for free surface tracking and turbulence modeling, respectively. Eight different Froude numbers (F) ranging from 3.1 to 9.5 have been analyzed for a type …

Baffle Designs To Facilitate Fish Passage In Box Culverts: A Preliminary Study, H. Chanson, W. Uys

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

Waterway culverts and road crossings are very common design in water systems, ranging from rural roads to national highways and urban drainage networks. Engineers and biologists need better, more reliable prediction 'tools' during the design stages to compare the bio-engineering performances of a range of design options. Present expertise in environmental hydraulics of culverts is deficient because of the many empirically-based design guidelines which are sometimes outdated and often inadequate for fish passage. In all the cases, the turbulence of the flowing waters must be optimised efficiently to maximise fish migration. This project focused on the development of simple solutions …

Spillway Rock Scour Analysis - Composite Of Physical & Numerical Modelling, Paradise Dam, Australia, E. J. Lesleighter, E. F.R. Bollaert, B. L. Mcpherson, D. C. Scriven

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

A number of problems and solutions of rock scour downstream of spillways have been evaluated using a composite approach, based on the gathering of detailed data from a physical model and utilising those data in a sequence of calibration and application of numerical modelling of the scour. Our paper will describe the application of the Computational Scour Model (CSM - Bollaert, 2002 and subsequent) as the numerical procedure that makes the composite approach a proven methodology for such problems. The paper will focus on a case study application of the procedure based on the experiences of flooding and scour at …

Interaction Of Hydraulic Structures With Air, Water, And Rock: The Challenge Of Researchers And Designers, Anton J. Schleiss

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

Since the last ten years, financial crisis has strongly impacted the global economy, which was mainly the result of un-controlled financial speculations at the stock markets highlighted by the revelations regarding offshore companies. Fortunately, the field of construction of large infrastructures, such as hydraulic schemes, has been left relatively untouched by this crisis. In order to stimulate their economies, many governments across the world have injected significant sums into sustainable infrastructures development.

Green Synthesis Nanocomposite Membranes, Dibakar Bhattacharyya, Vasile Smuleac, Rajender S. Varma, Subhas K. Sikdar

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Patents

A nanocomposite membrane includes a macroporous polymer membrane having a plurality of pores. A plurality of metal nanoparticles are synthesized and immobilized within those plurality of pores. The nanoparticles are reduced and capped with a green reducing and capping agent such as green tea extract.

On-Farm Integrated High-Solids Processing System For Biomass, Sue E. Nokes, Bert C. Lynn, Stephen E. Rankin, Barbara L. Knutson, Michael D. Montross, Michael D. Flythe

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Patents

A method for on-farm processing a biomass feedstock into a useful industrial chemicals includes the steps of (a) delignifying the biomass feedstock to produce a delignified biomass, (b) subjecting the deliguified biomass to cellulase production, (c) subjecting the deliguified biomass with attached cellulase to simultaneous cellulolytic and solventogenic reactions to produce useful industrial chemicals (d) collecting and separating the useful industrial chemical from the fermentation broth and (e) collecting the fermentation residues.

Training Graduate Engineering Students In Ethics, Mohamed Trabia, Julie A. Longo, Susan Wainscott

Library Faculty Presentations

The Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas embarked on providing ethics instruction to incoming graduate students in the form of a mandatory workshop. The College has a diverse graduate student population, including a sizable international component, who are enrolled in several M.S. and Ph.D. degree programs within four departments. Faculty felt that training in ethics was needed to better prepare incoming students for successful graduate studies and working professionally after graduation. Therefore, a standalone workshop was developed that covered four major topics: Research Ethics, Computer Coding Ethics, Publishing Ethics, and Intellectual Property. The …

Rule-Based Risk Monitoring Systems For Complex Datasets, Mona Haghighi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation we present rule-based machine learning methods for solving problems with high-dimensional or complex datasets. We are applying decision tree methods on blood-based biomarkers and neuropsychological tests to predict Alzheimer’s disease in its early stages. We are also using tree-based methods to identify disparity in dementia related biomarkers among three female ethnic groups. In another part of this research, we tried to use rule-based methods to identify homogeneous subgroups of subjects who share the same risk patterns out of a heterogeneous population. Finally, we applied a network-based method to reduce the dimensionality of a clinical dataset, while capturing …

Controlling The Corrosion And Cathodic Activation Of Magnesium Via Microalloying Additions Of Ge, R. L. Liu, M. F. Hurley, A. Kvryan, G. Williams, J. R. Scully, N. Birbilis

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The evolution of corrosion morphology and kinetics for magnesium (Mg) have been demonstrated to be influenced by cathodic activation, which implies that the rate of the cathodic partial reaction is enhanced as a result of anodic dissolution. This phenomenon was recently demonstrated to be moderated by the use of arsenic (As) alloying as a poison for the cathodic reaction, leading to significantly improved corrosion resistance. The pursuit of alternatives to toxic As is important as a means to imparting a technologically safe and effective corrosion control method for Mg (and its alloys). In this work, Mg was microalloyed with germanium …

The Progress Of Order-Structured Membrane Electrode Assembly, Shang-Feng Jiang, Bao-Lian Yi

Journal of Electrochemistry

Performances of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) have been recently improved. However, the cost and Pt loading must be further reduced for the commercialization of PEMFCs. Previous researches have proved that the order-structured electrode is beneficial to the effective utilization of Pt-based catalysts, decreasing the Pt loading and increasing the three-phase boundary for reaction. Especially, the nanostructure thin films (NSTFs) electrode, an ultra-thin catalytic layer developed by 3M Company, demonstrates high performance and durability. Besides, some other researchers have employed the high conductive carbon nanotube arrays or high stable metal oxide arrays as the order-structured catalyst supports for fundamental …

Recent Progress In Solid-State Nmr Study Of Electrode/Electrolyte Materials For Lithium/Sodium Ion Batteries, Gui-Ming Zhong, Zi-Geng Liu, Da-Wei Wang, Qi Li, Ri-Qiang Fu, Yong Yang

Journal of Electrochemistry

Solid state NMR technique is a powerful tool for characterizing the local structure and compositions of solid materials quantitatively. A comprehensive understanding of the structure evolution during the electrochemical reactions of the materials for lithium/sodium ion batteries will be obtained with the combination of solid state NMR, XRD, and XAS methods. Through analyzing solid state NMR spectra, we can obtain the compositions, local structures and ion diffusion dynamics of electrodes, electrolytes and surface layers for lithium/sodium ion batteries, providing an important theoretical support for the design and development of high-performance materials for batteries. In this paper, we review the recent …