Design of a prototype of a recoverable, labyrinth fuse-gate with polyhedral bottom for increasing hydrological safety of dams.

Labyrinth spillways let an important increase in discharge capacity for low and moderated hydraulic heads. However, there are behavioral uncertainties when the head over the spillway height exceeds some values. At this working range, the labyrinth spillway may lose his main advantage.

In order to avoid this shortcoming, a combination between the concepts of labyrinth spillways and fuse gates can be posed. Fuse gates are designed in such a way that when the hydraulic head exceed certain values, the gate cannot withstand hydraulic forces and therefore they run off downstream allowing a fast increase of the hydraulic head. Thus, this is a preventive system that permits a dramatic increase in discharge capacity when needed. However, it has its main drawback in the costs related to the loss of the gates downstream when flood is occurring.

This research aims the design of a recoverable gate system that combines the advantages of labyrinth spillways with the fuse-type gates.

Participants:

This R&D project has been funded by: