MECHANICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SPHERE FLOWING ALONG A DAM

Abstract

 Stones and gravels can cause serious abrasion at a dam. This study attempts to clarify the mechanical characteristics of transport of a stone and gravel along a dam through the experiment and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The CFD is used to evaluate the fluid force acting on the particle that has been tracked in the experiment. The momentum equation of the particle is verified from the both side of the experiment and CFD. The results show that pressure gradient force has dominant influence on jumping at the top of the dam. The pressure gradient force relative to the particle mass does not depend on the particle size, which impies that even large particle can jump at the spillway and collide with downstream bed.