Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Estimation Of The Efficiency Of Hydraulic Pumps, A. Martin-Candilejo, D. Santillán, L. Garrote

International Junior Researcher and Engineer Workshop on Hydraulic Structures

A sustainable design of water supply systems needs to account operational costs. When pumping is required, the energy consumed by the pumps plays a major part in the operational costs, and the efficiency of the pumps can greatly affect the energy expenses. How to properly estimate the value of pump efficiency is hence of great importance. The aim of this study is to study in depth the efficiency of hydraulic pumps, in relation with the other design variables (flow rate, pumping head, power, etc.). For that, 400 hydraulic pumps were analysed. A strong relationship between the flow rate and the …

Streamflow Duration Curves: Focus On Low Flows, E. Carcano, M. Betasolo

International Junior Researcher and Engineer Workshop on Hydraulic Structures

Flow duration curves (FDCs) express the link between a selected streamflow and the percentage in time such value is exceeded. The curves provide a graphical insight into hydrological regimes, though, the absence of time-series data is a significant shortcoming. Conversely to what happens with hygrograms, flows in FDCs are represented without regard of sequence of occurrence. This paper explores FDCs of 19 catchments for which, at least, 10 years of daily discharges are available. FDCs can be built for any temporal scale (i.e. daily, weekly, monthly). In this study daily discharges have been adopted because daily scale better represents the …

Flow Distribution In Slotted Pipe Bottom Outlets, Felipe Azevedo Paulo, Eder Daniel Teixeira

International Junior Researcher and Engineer Workshop on Hydraulic Structures

Reservoir sedimentation is a major threat to dam operation. It can reduce water storage capacity, clog water intakes, and damage turbine components. Flushing operations by bottom outlets are a mitigation measure that allows removing sediment deposited near the dam. Unfortunately, the effect of such structures is localized if no water level draw down takes place; therefore, investigations of new designs that improve sediment removal have emerged recently. In this work, we present our current results on the investigation of the slotted pipe bottom outlet obtained through numerical modeling. The flow patterns were characterized for different water levels, showing that discharges …

Calibration Of A Hydraulic Model For Seasonal Flooding In A Lowland River With Natural Diversions And Bathymetric Uncertainty, For Dam Downstream Impact Assessment, Getachew E. Mamo, Davide Motta, Martin Crapper

International Junior Researcher and Engineer Workshop on Hydraulic Structures

A method is developed to generate bank-full river main channel geometry, to complement an open-source Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and produce a calibrated hydraulic model reproducing the extent of historically observed overbank flooding. This approach relies on limited surveyed cross section and flow rate information and is potentially suitable for projects in developing countries where the availability of measured data is limited. The method presented is applied to the case of the seasonal flooding of the Baro River in the Gambela floodplain in Ethiopia, modelled with a two-dimensional hydraulic model. The simulated flooding extent for the 1990 wet season is …

Particle Image Velocimetry (Piv) Investigation Of Local Scour Around Emergent And Submerged Circular Cylinders, P. Williams, R. Balachandar, V. Roussinova, R. Barron

International Junior Researcher and Engineer Workshop on Hydraulic Structures

Analysis of the velocity field surrounding a circular cylinder under equilibrium of local scour has been restricted due to practical limitations of commonly used measurement techniques. This investigation summarizes select cases in the literature which have attempted to circumvent such limitations and presents flow field measurements using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). Scour tests were conducted in a horizontal flume fitted with a sediment recess containing erodible bed material. Tests were conducted with both emergent and submerged circular cylinders for a period of 24 hours, after which equilibrium was achieved and planar PIV measurements were obtained in the streamwise-vertical symmetry plane. …

Comparison Of Pressure Distribution In 2d And 3d Jet-Driven Scour Processes, Simone Pagliara, Deep Roy

International Junior Researcher and Engineer Workshop on Hydraulic Structures

Water jets impacting on a non-cohesive granular bed cause a dynamic pressure distribution on the surface of the scour hole. Such distribution greatly differs from the hydrostatic one, especially in proximity of the impact zone, where the kinetic energy of the jet is dissipates due to the shear stresses acting on the scour surface. Here, the excess of shear stress causes the erosion of the bed material and can lead to the failure of hydraulic structures. Therefore, a detailed analysis of the forces acting on the scour surface is fundamental to understand the erosion mechanisms. Experimental tests were conducted under …

Modelling Velocity Profiles Of Aerated Flows Down Grassed Spillways, H. Cui, S. Felder, M. Kramer

International Junior Researcher and Engineer Workshop on Hydraulic Structures

The ecological and environmental benefits of grassed spillways present a green solution to the construction of low head conveyance structures. On a grassed spillway, the aggregate of the grass canopy and root structure may alter flow resistance, velocity distribution and other flow properties. While subcritical flows in vegetated open channels have been extensively researched, only little is known about flow properties in supercritical high-velocity flows, which are typically characterized by self-aeration. The current study explores the application of a velocity superposition to supercritical aerated flows on a spillway with artificial grass. Velocity measurements were conducted with a Pitot tube and …

A Critical Analysis Of Jet-Induced Scour Formulas, J. Di Nardi, M. Palermo, S. Pagliara

International Junior Researcher and Engineer Workshop on Hydraulic Structures

Many studies investigate erosive processes occurring in non-cohesive granular materials downstream of grade-control structures, dam spillways, headcuts, and other hydraulic structures. Because of the complexity of the scour mechanism, the analysis of the scour phenomenon caused by plunging jets is generally conducted by using physical models and particularly for specific structure geometries. In this regard, many researchers proposed empirical approaches to estimate the main scour lengths, but their contributions are limited to tested conditions and cannot be generalized. This lack of generality has been (partially) overcome by other, more recent, approaches, that are either semitheoretical or fully theoretical. Previous works …

Numerical Simulation Of Fish Passage Over A Weir, Linus Kaminski, C. Thorenz, R. Weichert

International Junior Researcher and Engineer Workshop on Hydraulic Structures

Downstream migration over weir structures has been a mostly neglected element of ecological continuity in the last decades. The guidelines currently applied in Germany to prevent damage to fish do not sufficiently consider the conditions present at weirs. To improve knowledge of the risks of fish passage over a weir due to physical strike, pressure changes and shear stress, a numerical method using the three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics package OpenFOAM® was developed to simulate fish passage over a weir by tracking passively transported particles. In this study, the method is tested on an overshot and an undershot weir and the …

Effect Of Boundary-Layer Development On The Water-Surface Fluctuations Of Supercritical Flow Below A Sluice Gate, Ryugen Satoh, M. Takahashi, I. Ohtsu

International Junior Researcher and Engineer Workshop on Hydraulic Structures

Hydraulic structures with a sluice gate are commonly used for control of the flow. In supercritical flow below a sluice gate, an accurate estimation of the water depth and boundary layer thickness is important for the hydraulic design of a horizontal apron. The relation between water-surface fluctuations and boundary-layer development has not been clarified. The aim of this paper is to experimentally demonstrate the effect of boundary-layer development on water-surface fluctuations of supercritical flow below a sluice gate. It is shown that water surface begins to fluctuate slightly upstream of the critical point. The water-surface fluctuations and turbulence intensities downstream …

Cfd Simulation Of Supercritical Flow In Narrow Channels Including Sediment Bypass Tunnels, Subhojit Kadia, Elena Pummer, Nils RüTher

International Junior Researcher and Engineer Workshop on Hydraulic Structures

Secondary currents, turbulence characteristics and bed shear stress distribution are the crucial parameters for specifying sediment transport. Hence, to understand the sediment transport in sediment bypass tunnels (SBTs), we performed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation of supercritical flow in a narrow straight channel. The results of the steady state simulation (Froude number ≈ 1.8) were compared with experimental results. The commonly used two-equations linear eddy-viscosity models are limited to isotropic turbulence closure and hence could not replicate the desired secondary currents. Therefore, the LRR Reynolds Stress Model was used, and predicted the flow features and the secondary currents (three kinds …

Probability Of Woody Debris Passage At Rock Weirs, Kathryn A. Margetts, B. M. Crookston

International Junior Researcher and Engineer Workshop on Hydraulic Structures

Often, large woody debris (LWD) at hydraulic structures is considered hazardous from a performance and public safety perspective. However, the sustainable management of rivers requires the consideration of ecological impacts of LWD such as cover for aquatics and the natural movement of LWD through a catchment. Therefore, this study explores the interaction of natural (nonuniform) LWD with rock weirs through field observations in the Blacksmith Fork River in Utah, USA and laboratory testing at the Utah Water Research Laboratory. The passage probability of individual LWD at rock weirs is observed and tested in an effort to describe the balance between …

Laboratory Experiments On Long Waves Interacting With Rigid Vertical Cylinders, R. Basile, F. De Serio, D. Raffaele

International Junior Researcher and Engineer Workshop on Hydraulic Structures

The impact of waves caused by storm surges or floods could lead to significant damage to marine and fluvial structures. Hydraulic forces add significant hydrodynamic loads on bridges built in coastal and fluvial environments; therefore, the effect of the wave impact on bridge substructures must be properly considered for the safe and cost-effective design of the piers. The use of laboratory-scale models is a direct approach to investigate the effects of long waves on simple structures, mimicking bridge piers. The present study describes a laboratory-scale model, where the propagation of two different long waves in a flume, in the presence …

Approach Flow Depth Influence On Nonlinear Weir Discharge Capacity, Benane Redha, Sebastien Erpicum, Michel Pirotton

International Junior Researcher and Engineer Workshop on Hydraulic Structures

The high hydraulic efficiency and the compactness of nonlinear weirs favor their use in several rehabilitation or new dams projects. Main types of nonlinear weirs are labyrinth and piano key weirs.The purpose of this paper is to provide indications on the influence of the approach flow depth on the discharge capacity of these nonlinear weirs. To do so, a series of experimental tests have been carried out in the laboratory of Engineering Hydraulics of the Liege University. A labyrinth and a piano key weir have been tested in channel configuration (upstream flow width equal to the weir width) considering various …

Discharge Capacity Of A Piano Key Weir With Curvilinear Keys, R. K. Mishra, Z. Ahmad

International Junior Researcher and Engineer Workshop on Hydraulic Structures

The Piano Key Weir (PKW) has emerged as a cost effective and viable solution for dam rehabilitation and new projects with high level of space constraints. The geometrical dimensions of PKW are main factors affecting their discharging capacity. Since, it is a relatively new type of weir that has only been developed in recent years, the description of the effect of its geometrical parameters is still immature. The geometric designs of these weirs presented in the literatures incorporate only linear floor slope of the keys. For better understanding of the influence of curvilinear shapes of outlet key slopes on discharge …

Development Of A 1 Kw Gravitational Water Vortex Hydropower Plant Prototype, A. Sapkota, A. Gautam, A. B. Timilsina, S. Dhakal, S. R. Shakya, T. R. Bajracharya

International Junior Researcher and Engineer Workshop on Hydraulic Structures

A pilot testing of a Gravitational Water Vortex Hydropower Plant (GWVHP) has been done to evaluate the applicability in a real-world scenario and validate the results from the lab-scale model. A scaled-up model of a capacity of 1 kW was constructed for the evaluation purpose. The test provided data in good agreement with a lab-scale model and a proper visualization to install Gravitational Water Vortex in real-world scenarios. The project lasted for nearly four months and thus provided important information on the problems that might arise in scaling up the lab model to a micro-hydro system. The pilot testing shows …

An Open Web-Based Module Developed To Advance Data-Driven Hydrologic Process Learning, Belize A. Lane, Irene Garousi-Nejad, Melissa A. Gallagher, David G. Tarboton, Emad Habib

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The era of ‘big data’ promises to provide new hydrologic insights, and open web-based platforms are being developed and adopted by the hydrologic science community to harness these datasets and data services. This shift accompanies advances in hydrology education and the growth of web-based hydrology learning modules, but their capacity to utilize emerging open platforms and data services to enhance student learning through data-driven activities remains largely untapped. Given that generic equations may not easily translate into local or regional solutions, teaching students to explore how well models or equations work in particular settings or to answer specific problems using …

Proceedings Of The 8th International Junior Researcher And Engineer Workshop On Hydraulic Structures, International Association For Hydro-Environmental Engineering And Research

International Junior Researcher and Engineer Workshop on Hydraulic Structures

Full proceedings for the 8th International Junior Researcher and Engineer Workshop on Hydraulic Structures.

A Review Of Harmful Algal Bloom Prediction Models For Lakes And Reservoirs, Jade Snyder Echard

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Anthropogenic activity has led to eutrophication in water bodies across the world. This eutrophication promotes blooms, cyanobacteria being among the most notorious bloom organisms. Cyanobacterial blooms (more commonly referred to as harmful algal blooms (HABs)) can devastate an ecosystem. Cyanobacteria are resilient microorganisms that have adapted to survive under a variety of conditions, often outcompeting other phytoplankton. Some species of cyanobacteria produce toxins that ward off predators. These toxins can negatively affect the health of the aquatic life, but also can impact animals and humans that drink or come in contact with these noxious waters. Although cyanotoxin’s effects on humans …

Testing Methods Of Surficial Sinkhole Identification Using Remotely Sensed Data, Dane P. Brophy

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Nearly a quarter of all people rely on karst aquifers for drinking water. In the United States, the Safe Water Drinking Act requires a complete assessment of public water systems' vulnerabilities to contamination. As part of that assessment, watershed boundaries must be delineated, while recharge and supply locations identified. In the context of karst aquifers, surficial karst features, such as sinkholes, can act as a point source of direct recharge to karst aquifers and create vulnerabilities to critical drinking water sources. Historical methods of locating these features are inefficient and depend on basic field investigations, resulting in a clear need …

Effects Of Flow Path Factors In The Permeability Of Natural And Man-Made Granular Soils Using The Kozeny-Carman Equation, Robert Davies

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The research presented in this paper serves to observe how the flow path factors relate to the void ratio, the effective diameter of a soil particle, and the permeability of a given sample assuming the behavior is consistent across natural and artificial soils. The basis of the comparison is the derived Kozeny-Carman Equation for permeability with focus on the factors C_s and C_l where C_s represents the shape of the flow path and C_l represents the length of the flow path that a single water molecule must travel through a soil sample. Permeameter tests were conducted …

Informed Polluters: A Comparison Between Pollutant Sources Of Two Lakes And Resulting Remediation Strategies, Jeffrey Kennedy

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Excess nutrients are a problem for many lakes and rivers across the country. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires states to monitor polluted waterbodies and provide plans to remediate them. These plans are commonly submitted in a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) report where sources and polluters are identified. These reports have not been successful, however, at solving all nutrient problems.

Newman Lake in Washington and Mantua Reservoir in Utah are two lakes that continue to receive excess nutrients, notably phosphorus. High levels of these nutrients lead to increased biological activity and subsequent drops in dissolved oxygen. Many lakes …

Sustainable Agricultural Development In The Western Desert Of Egypt Under Climate Change: A Case Study Of The Siwa Region, Noha Hossam Moghazy

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Siwa region located in the Western Desert of Egypt is a natural depression and has a large volume of groundwater from the non-renewable Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System (NSAS). Recently the government initiated a development project to reclaim 1.5 million acres where most of the lands are located in the Western Desert to use available groundwater from NSAS. The primary goal of this project is to increase agricultural areas enabling rural development. Siwa is one of the areas that will be reclaimed in the desert by about 30,000 acres consisting of good soil quality. This dissertation aims to understand the …

Effects Of Climate Forcing Uncertainty On High-Resolution Snow Modeling And Streamflow Prediction In A Mountainous Karst Watershed, Conor Tyson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Snow-dominated, karst watersheds present particular challenges to accurately modeling streamflow in response to differing climate conditions. This is due to the uneven distribution of snow within a basin, the varied melting rates due to terrain and climate, and the difficulty determining flow paths through karst conduits below ground. One possible solution to these challenges is to model snow at a fine scale, but climate variables are not available at these smaller spatial scales. The choices about which climate dataset to use, and how to downscale the data to a fine scale, will likely affect the accuracy of streamflow simulations. This …

Uses And Challenges Of Collecting Lidar Data From A Growing Autonomous Vehicle Fleet: Implications For Infrastructure Planning And Inspection Practices, Md Ashikur Rahman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) that utilize LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) and other sensing technologies are becoming an inevitable part of transportation industry. Concurrently, transportation agencies are increasingly challenged with the management and tracking of large-scale highway asset inventory. LiDAR has become popular among transportation agencies for highway asset management given its advantage over traditional surveying methods. The affordability of LiDAR technology is increasing day by day. Given this, there will be substantial challenges and opportunities for the utilization of big data resulting from the growth of AVs with LiDAR. A proper understanding of the data size generated from this technology …

Application Of Flow And Ion Data To Estimate Ungaged Inflows And Losses In Urban And Agricultural Sub-Reaches Of The Logan River Observatory, Hyrum Tennant

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Streams in urban and agricultural environments are often heavily diverted for irrigation and drinking water purposes. These streams can receive inflow from unmeasured sources including stormwater returns, groundwater drains, and irrigation runoff that will help sustain flow during dry periods. Due to an inability to identify the source of most of these inflows or directly measure their volumes, there is a clear need for identification and quantification methods. Streamflow data from the Logan River Observatory illustrates the importance of unidentified inflows in sections influenced by large diversions. To understand the role of unidentified inflows and possible outflows in this portion …

Accounting For Critical Attributes And Uncertainty In Flow-Ecology Relationships, Elizabeth Decker Morgan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Environmental flows are used to maintain streamflow for aquatic species in rivers while also sustaining human water requirements. While there are many approaches to develop environmental flows, they all rely on a strong conceptual understanding of flow-ecology relationships, which are often uncertain. Uncertainty in flow-ecology relationships can stem from using limited data to develop or test relationships or an incomplete understanding of the attributes inherent to each relationship, such as climate and land conditions. Accounting for these attributes and uncertainty in flow-ecology relationships is critical given mounting interest to develop and implement environmental flows at large scales, often with limited …

Application Of Computational Fluid Dynamics To Determine Gas Expansion Factors Of Differential Pressure Flow Meters, Patrick L. Campana

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this research was to investigate if computer simulations could be used to accurately predict gas expansion in differential pressure flow meters. Differential pressure flow meters are used to measure the flow rate of pressurized liquids and gases through pipes. Computer simulations of liquid and gas flows were conducted for three distinct differential pressure flow meter geometries: Classical Venturis, Stand Concentric orifice plates, and wedge meters.

Gas flows were modeled as dry air using the assumption of a perfect gas. Expansion effects were modeled using the ideal gas law. Computer simulations of Classical Venturi and Standard Concentric orifice …

A Laboratory Study On The Geometric Effects Of Piano Key Weirs On Scour For Non-Cohesive Substrates And Simple Mitigation Techniques, Wyatt Lantz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Sustainable flood control infrastructure is needed as climate change continues to produce more extreme precipitation events, as our water infrastructure continues to age, and as populations continue to grow and expand. Non-linear weirs, such as labyrinth and piano key weirs, are sustainable passive flood-control structures due to their improved hydraulic performance, and low maintenance and construction costs. However, like other structures, these weirs are susceptible to local scour, which is removal of soil and rock due to hydraulic forces. The scour phenomenon is a complicated process dependent upon multiple variables. There is limited information for non-linear weirs with little directed …

A Laboratory Study Of The Hydraulics Of Moderate-Sloped Stepped Chutes With A Labyrinth Crest, L. Kade Flake

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Evolving methods of dam construction and rehabilitation require unique and innovative spillways. Spillways provide passage for water impounded by a dam. Stepped chute spillways offer an efficient and economical solution for dam construction and rehabilitation. Labyrinth weirs, which allow high flow discharge within a compact footprint, are often an economical solution for the spillway crest at a chute entrance. Labyrinth weirs have recently been combined with stepped chutes in several locations. However, published literature is scarce for the flow properties and key design parameters of these combined structures.

This study researched the hydraulics downstream of a labyrinth crest for two …