HYDRAULIC DESIGN OF STEPPED SPILLWAYS

HYDRAULIC DESIGN OF STEPPED SPILLWAYS

Hans-Erwin Minor 1 and Robert M. Boes 2

1 Director, Professor Dr.-Ing., 2 Research Engineer, Dr. sc. techn.

Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW)

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland

Tel. +41 1 632 40 90, Fax: +41 1 632 11 92, E-mail: minor@vaw.baug.ethz.ch

Abstract: The hydraulic design of stepped spillways follows the planning sequence of con-ven-
tional chutes: Flood analysis, selection of design flood and safety check flood, selection of weir
type and width, design of weir crest, definition of the stage-discharge curve, calculation of
reservoir retention.

Additionally, for stepped spillways the selection of step height and the analysis of flow regime
and air entrainment are necessary. The design of the sidewalls has to take into account the bulging
of the air-water mixture, and the energy dissipation profits from higher energy losses along the
steps compared to smooth chutes. The latter is however smaller than often assumed. Higher
steps have a positive effect on the hydraulic performance of the spillway.

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Keywords: Stepped spillway, energy dissipation, RCC dam, air-water mixture, air concentration

1 INTRODUCTION

Stepped spillway chutes can be economically integrated into the downstream face of gravity
dams, especially if roller compacted concrete (RCC) is used for the con-struction. Another
common application is the use of stepped overlays on embankment dams as emergency spillways.
In both cases, a careful hydraulic and structural design of the complete spillway, including the
energy dissipator, is necessary to ensure safe operation over the whole lifetime of the dam structure.

Based on hydraulic model investigations at the Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and

Glaciology (VAW) of ETH Zurich, Switzerland (Boes 2000a, Schläpfer 2000) and the results of
the International Workshop on the Hydraulics of Stepped Spillways carried out at VAW in
March 2000 (Minor & Hager 2000), as well as practical experience with design and construction
of spillways, a design procedure for stepped spillways is presented and guidelines for the
hydraulic design are formulated.

2 PLANNING SEQUENCE

The planning sequence of stepped spillways follows in general the one for conventional
spillways. The subsequent text follows this sequence.

Flood analysis to find the peak flows and volumes for floods of various recurrence intervals and
the selection of the design flood and the safety check flood, as well as the decision whether the
weir structure should be gated, are common for all spillway types (Minor 1998).

3 SELECTION OF WEIR WIDTH

The choice of the weir width is made considering the crest length of the dam, the width of

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the riverbed downstream, and a possible reduction of effective weir width because of piers or
effects at the abutments and the entrance at the sidewalls. A very important value for all spillways
is the allowable rise of the water level in the reservoir above normal operation level caused by
the considered flood event. A larger rise results in a more pronounced dampening of the
peak discharge. A higher head on the crest on the other hand increases the specific discharge q.
Since for stepped spillways q is usually limited to 25-30 m3/s⋅m (Minor 2000), this condition leads
to fairly wide crests. The reason for this limitation is the fear of cavitation damage. It can be
shown (Boes & Minor 2000) that cavitation risk can be ruled out for much higher specific
discharges than the limit given above once the flow is aerated.

For uniform flow the bottom air concentration is high enough to avoid cavitation for
specific discharges up to almost qmax = 140 m3/s⋅m for steep chutes and high steps ( Table 1 ).
But also for smaller step heights and flatter slopes the allowable values are fairly high. These
values are on the conservative side for design purposes, because the aeration tends to be
more pronounced in the prototype than suggested by model results due to a higher de-gree
of turbulence (Boes 2000a and b).

4 DESIGN OF WEIR CREST

Most spillways are designed using the crest shape given in chart 111-1 of the Hydraulic
Design Criteria (COE/WES 2000). Mateos Iguácel & Elviro García (2000) propose a
transition between the crest and the stepped chute in which the steps grow continuously from
a relatively small height to the constant step height in the chute.

At fill dams the crest is much wider and therefore on top of this wide crest often an additional wall
is installed, creating an overfall. The flow is then already aerated there if the air supply at the sides
is sufficient and the crest is not too long.

As stated above, the specific discharge may be chosen much higher if it is ensured that the flow
is aerated already at the top of the spillway. This can be achieved if a conventional weir shape

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is chosen (smooth concrete surface) and an aerator is introduced near the point of tangency.
Another possibility is a flap gate on top of the crest. The advantage of such a solution would be
that the flow is aerated and the rise of the water level in the reservoir can be limited.

5 VERIFICATION OF MAXIMUM OUTFLOW

Once the crest design is defined, the corresponding key curve can be computed. In case of
gated structures, the operation rules have to be taken into account. The key curve,
inflow hydrogramme and reservoir volume curve are needed to calculate the outflow
hydrogramme giving the maximum discharge. The resulting specific discharge q has to be
compared with the assumption made above.

6 SELECTION OF STEP HEIGHT

The height of the steps has to be chosen taking into account the construction procedure. Very
often RCC dams are constructed in layers of 30 cm and formwork-heights of 60 cm to 1.20 m.
From that standpoint a step height between 30 cm and 1.20 m would be convenient. Results of
model tests show (Boes & Minor 2000) that higher steps seem to have an advantage over
smaller steps considering hydraulics.

Regarding the cavitation risk high steps allow a markedly larger specific discharge than small
steps (Table 1 ). As shown in Fig. 1 , the uniform bottom air concentration, which governs the
safety against cavitation damage, is considerably higher for larger slopes. Furthermore, higher
steps are also preferable since more energy is dissipated than with smaller steps (Boes & Minor
2000, Boes 2000c). Steps smaller than 60 cm are not recommended.

7 FLOW REGIME AND AIR ENTRAINMENT

Two distinct flow regimes are found on stepped spillways. Whereas in nappe flow the steps act as
a series of overfalls with the water plunging from one step to another, the water flows as a
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coherent stream over the pseudo-bottom formed by the step corners in skimming flow.
Generally speaking, nappe flow is found for low discharges and large steps. For small steps or
larger discharges such as the design discharge, the water skims over the step corners. The
transition from nappe to skimming flow can be expressed by the ratio of critical flow depth hc
and step height s. Ac-cording to Boes (2000a), skimming flow sets in for ratios larger than

(1)

This is in approximate agreement with results of other authors (Boes 2000c) and is applicable
for chute inclination angles of approximately 26° <f < 55°.

Nappe flow is generally well aerated, whereas in skimming flow the turbulent boundary layer has
to reach the free surface before air may be entrained from the atmosphere. This occurs at
the inception point. According to Boes (2000c) the unaerated length Li from the spillway crest to
the inception point can be described by

Li = 4.93 for 26° < f < 55° (2)

Whereas the step height s has limited influence on the length of the unaerated zone, the
specific discharge dominates this value.

Chamani (2000) reports that at the inception point, the suddenly increased turbulence at the
water surface leads to a "rooster tail", which results in a markedly higher flow depth over
some length. Boes (2000a) did not find such a pronounced flow structure in his tests. The
mixture flow depth showed a local maximum only for higher steps.

The entrained air, together with the energy dissipation on the chute, lead to a bulging of the
flow, which has to be taken into account in designing the side walls of the chute. The
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characteristic mixture flow depth h90 with a surface air concentration of 90% serves as a guide for
the design in the aerated or white water region. Starting from the inception point of air
entrainment, the air-water mixture is de-scribed by a supercritical backwater curve. In
non-dimensional form, the mixture flow depth can be expressed by (Hager & Boes 2000)

for 26° < f < 55° (3)

where Li is calculated from eq. (2) , x is the streamwise coordinate with its origin at the
spillway crest and h90,u denotes the uniform mixture flow depth that is function of the

roughness Froude number Fr* = q/(g sinf s3)1/2. The uniform mixture flow depth is found to be

for 26° < f < 55° (4)

The exponent p = 0.54 for f = 30° and 40°, and p = 0.59 for f = 50° (Boes 2000c). The
volumetric portion of the water phase is almost negligi-ble above h90, but the developing spray
can lead to fog or ice formation in winter.

The mixture depth h95 is about 12% larger than h90, whereas h99/h90 ≈ 1.4 (Boes 2000a). It
is recommended to consider the erosion potential in the non-overflow section of a dam when
de-signing training walls. The proposed design height hd for sidewalls reads

h = h·h , (5)
d 90

with a safety factor h = 1.2 for concrete dams with no con-cern of erosion on the downstream
face and h = 1.5 in case of emergency spillways on embankment dams prone to erosion. The
safety factors take into account the increase of the spray height in the prototype due to a
higher turbulence degree, as compared to the model results (Boes 2000 a).

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8 ENERGY DISSIPATION AT THE DAM TOE

One of the advantages of stepped spillways put forward by many authors is the higher
energy dissipation along the chute compared with conventional, smooth chutes. The
energy dissipation is different if the flow is aerated or not.

If the chute length is superior to the length Lu measured from the crest to the location where
uniform flow is attained (Boes 2000c)

L ≈ (57-13/sinf) h for 26° < f < 55° (6)

u c

then the rela-tive residual energy head Hres/Hmax at the toe of an ungated stepped spillway can be
cal-culated from (Chanson 1994)

(7)

where Hmax denotes the reservoir head, fw,u is the Darcy-Weisbach friction factor for
uniform equivalent clear water flow and a ≈ 1.21 (Boes & Minor 2000) is the kinetic
energy correction coefficient. Conservative friction factors of fw,u = 0.09 for f = 30° and fw,u =
0.06 for 40° and 50° are proposed (Boes 2000c). These values are smaller than previously
suggested by most authors, so that the energy dissipation of aerated skimming flow on
stepped spillways is smaller than given in many publications. Fig. 2 shows the relative
residual energy head as a function of the relative dam height for different spillway slopes.

With the knowledge of the residual energy head Hmax at the toe of the dam, the energy
dissipator may be designed. In most cases this is a conventional stilling basin. For the
dimensioning of this structure, the knowledge of the downstream water level is needed. It is
very often not easy to find the stage-discharge curve for a natural stream, but it is important to have
a reliable function. The calculation of backwater curves starting all from a point where the
stage-discharge curve can easily be defined may become necessary. This of course has to be done
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for various discharges covering the total range of the considered discharges.

The stilling basin, too, has to be checked for the whole range of discharges. Depending on
the tailwater, the maximum discharge might not be the most critical case.

9 STRUCTURAL DESIGN INCLUDING FINAL

DEFINITION OF SHAPES

Once the basic dimensions and shapes of the spillway are given, the detailed structural design has
to follow. The construction and contraction joints have to be at the right position. Decisions have
to be taken about reinforcement. RCC dams are unreinforced and an application of reinforcement
at the stepped chute would complicate construction. Sometimes reinforced precast elements are
used as lost formwork. Experience with existing stepped spillways show that the steps withstand
the stresses due to overflow corresponding to the currently applied specific discharge.
Further investigations are needed to confirm that this is also true for higher discharges and
higher steps.

A critical point is always the edge of the steps. Very often this edge breaks, giving an
unpleasant appearance and may initiate further damage. It is therefore proposed to phase off
the edges over 2 to 3 cm.

Shapes of the upstream part of the sidewalls and piers have to be chosen so that the reduction of
the inflow capacity is minimized.

10 CONCLUSIONS

Stepped spillways are a very convenient means to pass floods safely over RCC as well as fill
dams. The maximum specific discharge applied today, i.e. 25-30 m3/s×m, may be increased
if aeration of the chute is assured from the top. Larger steps have a positive effect on the
hydraulic performance.

The energy dissipation along the chute is exaggerated in many publications. It is recommended to
use the values given above (see also Boes 2000a). For the design of the stilling basin, in addition
to the calculation of the residual energy head at the toe of the dam, the tailwater rating curve is
of utmost importance. The maximum discharge might not be the most critical case for the
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energy dissipation.

Much care must be taken when defining the right shapes of all contours that are in contact with
water, since these may affect the capacity and the performance.

References

Boes, R.M. (2000a) Zweiphasenströmung und Energieumsetzung auf Grosskaskaden (Two-

phase flow and energy dissipation on cascades). Doctoral Dissertation No 13510. ETH Zurich
(in German).

Boes, R.M. (2000b). Scale effects in modelling two-phase stepped spillway flow. Proc.
Intl. Workshop on Hydr. of Stepped Spillways, VAW, ETH Zu-rich (H.-E. Minor & W.H.
Hager, eds.). Balkema, Rotterdam: 53-60.

Boes (2000c). Two-phase flow and energy dissipation on stepped spillways. Proc. ASDSO
Annual Conference on Dam Safety, Providence, USA: CD-ROM.

Boes, R.M & Minor, H.-E. (2000). Guidelines for the hydraulic design of stepped spillways.
Proc. Intl. Workshop on Hydr. of Stepped Spillways, VAW, ETH Zurich (H.-E. Minor & W.
H. Hager, eds.). Balkema, Rotterdam: 163-170.

Chamani, M.R. (2000). Air inception in skimming flow regime over stepped spillways. Proc.
Intl. Workshop on Hydr. of Stepped Spillways, VAW, ETH Zu-rich (H.-E. Minor & W.H.
Hager, eds.). Balkema, Rotterdam: 61-67.

Chanson, H. (1994). Comparison of energy dissipation between nappe and skimming flow
regimes on stepped chutes. Jl. of Hydr. Res. 32(2): 213-218.

COE/WES (2000). Hydraulic Design Criteria. Corps of Engineers / Waterways Exper. Station.
http://chl.wes.army.mil/library/publications/hydraulic_design_criteria/

Hager, W.H. & Boes, R.M. (2000). Backwater and drawdown curves in stepped spillway flows.
Proc. Workshop Hydr. of Stepped Spillways, VAW, ETH Zu-rich (H.-E. Minor & W.H. Hager,
eds.). Balkema, Rotterdam: 129-136.

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Mateos Iguácel, C. & Elviro García, V. (2000). Stepped spillway studies at CEDEX. Proc.
Intl. Workshop on Hydr. of Stepped Spillways, VAW, ETH Zurich (H.-E. Minor & W.H.
Hager, eds.). Balkema, Rotterdam: 87-94.

Minor, H.-E. (1998). Report of the European R&D Working Group “Floods”. Proc. Intl. Symp.
on New Trends and Guidelines on Dam Safety, Barcelona (L. Berga, ed.). Balkema, Rotterdam:
1541-1550.

Minor, H.-E. (2000). Spillways for high velocities. Proc. Intl. Workshop on Hydr. of
Stepped Spillways, VAW, ETH Zurich (H.-E. Minor & W.H. Hager, eds.). Balkema, Rotterdam:
3-10.

Minor, H.-E. & Hager, W.H., eds. (2000). Proc. Intl. Workshop on Hydr. of Stepped
Spillways, VAW, ETH Zurich. Balkema, Rotterdam.

Schläpfer, D. (2000). Treppenschussrinnen (Stepped Spillways). Diploma Thesis. VAW, ETH

Zurich (in German).

Table 1 Maximum specific discharge qmax in m3/s⋅m that can be spilled without risk
of cavitation damage for uniform flow as a function of spillway slope and step height.
s [m]
f [°] Slope V:H

0.3 0.6 0.9 1.2

30 1:1.73 8.3 23.4 43.1 66.3

40 1:1.19 15.2 42.9 78.7 121.2

50 1:0.84 17.4 49.2 90.4 139.2

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Fig. 1 Bottom air concentration in uniform flow Cb,u as a function of roughness Froude

number Fr* = q/(g sin f s3)1/2 for different spillway slopes.

Fig. 2 Relative residual energy Hres/Hmax as a function of relative dam height Hdam/hc for
different spillway slopes.

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