Stepped spillways for significant energy dissipation along the chute have gained interest; popularity among researchers; dam engineers. Due to the complexity of air-water two-phase flow over stepped spillways, the finite volume computational fluid dynamics module of the FLUENT software was used to simulate the main characteristics of the flow. Adopting the RNG k- turbulence model, the mixture flow model for air-water two-phase flow was used to simulate the flow field over stepped spillway with the PISO arithmetic technique. The numerical result successfully reproduced the complex flow over a stepped spillway of an experiment case, including the interaction between entrained air bubbles; cavity recirculation in the skimming flow regime, velocity distribution; the pressure profiles on the step surface as well. The result is helpful for understanding the detailed information about energy dissipation over stepped spillways.
CHENG Xiangju1, CHEN Yongcan1 & LUO Lin2 1. Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
