Channel formation during flushing of large shallow reservoirs with different geometries

Abstract

Depositional and flow patterns are first described to gain an understanding of the erosion patterns during hydraulic flushing in a reservoir. Considering the importance of this issue, two modes of flushing operation for control of sedimentation were performed in several experiments with different reservoir geometries. In order to investigate the effect of flushing and the effectiveness during free and drawdown flows, ten experiments have been conducted. The final bed morphology formed previously was used as the initial bed topography for the two modes of flushing. The entire experiments lasted for two days. Investigations of the flow pattern and the associated bed topography for free flow with normal water depth and drawdown flushing in various shallow reservoir geometries are presented. To effectively apply the flushing processes for the removal of sediment deposits, the location, depth and width of the flushing channel can be changed by modifications to the reservoir geometry. The channel formed during flushing attracts the jet and stabilizes the flow structures over the entire surface. Empirical formulae to describe the relationship between the reservoir geometry and flushing efficiency for the two modes of flushing were developed. Flushing at normal water level allows only a relatively small part of the deposited sediment to be evacuated. As deposits could be flushed out of the basin.

Keywords:

• flushing channel
• drawdown flushing
• deposits removal
• sediment management strategy
• shallow reservoir geometry

Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the Swiss Federal Office for Water and Geology (FOWG), now the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), in the framework of the project ‘Rhone‐Thur – sustainable use of rivers’.