Hydraulics
Stepped Spillway Facility
This facility aims to advance knowledge on innovative spillway solutions to enhance discharge capacity, thereby increasing reservoir storage volume. Research focuses on Labyrinth and Piano Key spillways, as well as stepped spillway hydraulics, including weir discharge coefficients and air-water flow characterization on the chute. These studies contribute to the optimization of hydraulic design, improving spillway efficiency and performance.
This facility features a stepped spillway chute with a WES standard weir profile, measuring 2.90 m in height, 1.00 m in width, and a 53-degree slope. A 5.0-meter-long stilling basin downstream ensures effective energy dissipation. The experimental flume allows for modifications to step height, chute macro-roughness, and control structure geometry, including the integration of PKWs or labyrinth weirs. With a discharge capacity of up to 200 l/s, it enables testing of solutions to enhance reservoir water availability while minimizing scale effects.
High-velocity water jets Facility
This facility was created to improve our understanding of water jets produced by dam spillways. It specifically studies the diffusion of these jets within the plunge pool and characterizes the resulting pressure fields. By enhancing comprehension of flow dynamics at the plunge pool floor, this facility provides essential data to aid in the design and optimization of energy dissipation structures in spillways.
The experimental facility, built in 2020, measures 4.00 m in length and 2.35 m in width. It is designed to generate vertical free-water jets with velocities of up to 18.0 m/s. The jets are produced using a nozzle with an inner diameter of 72 mm, positioned 1.00 m above the facility's base. The setup includes two flap gates, each 0.65 m wide, located 2.00 m from the jet axis along the longitudinal direction. These gates regulate the water levels within the facility, allowing for adjustments between 0.30 and 1.10 m. This flexibility enables the creation of both plunging and submerged jets, depending on the desired flow conditions. The jet is directed vertically onto a 1.00 m x 1.00 m metallic plate equipped with pressure transducers. By adjusting the flow rate and modifying the positions of the flap gates, the facility can simulate various jet velocities and flow conditions. This setup allows for investigating different jet diffusion patterns based on the relationship between jet velocity and pool depth. The resulting pressure fields at the bottom of the plunge pool under different jet conditions help characterize the flow's impact on the pool floor.
Dams and Dikes Failure Experimental Facility
The purpose of this experimental facility is to study the failure of embankment dams and fluvial dikes and to gather detailed experimental information on the geotechnical and hydrodynamic phenomena involved in the breaching process and on the hydrodynamics of the flow over the body of these embankment structures. The final goal is to enhance the accuracy of flood hydrograph estimates, enabling their precise propagation through numerical models to improve the characterization of flooded areas and support the development of effective risk mitigation strategies, ultimately increasing the safety of populations living in downstream valleys.
The river dikes facility operates in a closed-circuit system, where water is pumped from an underground reservoir to an upper reservoir, then flows through a 1.40 m wide, 19.15 m long channel, simulating river flow before being recirculated. Designed for dike failure tests, it accommodates dikes up to 0.50 m high and 2.00 m long, with a motorized downstream gate controlling the upstream water level and a sediment basin collecting eroded soil. The facility includes weirs for flow measurement and structural boundaries, such as a non-erodible dike section, ensuring controlled failure conditions. The breach effluent flow is estimated through mass balance calculations, allowing realistic replication of fluvial dike failure processes.