3.

DESIGN OF BOTTOM OUTLETS Purpose of bottom outlet

Bottom outlet is the outlet structure with the lowest elevation which can
serve for various purposes:

 Filling of the reservoir

 Drawdown of the reservoir
 Flushing of sediments
 Discharging surplus water

A bottom outlet must be provided in every dam as a safety structure to

control reservoir level and for emergency operations.

Drawdown of reservoir

 The load test of a dam is performed during the first filling of the reservoir.
Qo
Fp
h
 The filling must be made progressively by accounting for the stability and Qb
the water tightness of both the dam and its surroundings at certain levels of
zo
the reservoir.

 The load test procedure during the first filling is only amenable if a bottom
outlet is available.  Qo is the reservoir approach flow corresponding to an average value
over a certain time period such as several weeks or even months.

 The bottom outlet must thus be designed that the reservoir level can be  The choice of Qo depends on inflow hydrograph and reservoir storage
kept constantly under arbitrary levels
characteristics.
 Design guidelines for emergency drawdown:

 Qb is the design discharge of the bottom outlet.

 Rapid drawdown of a reservoir within the shortest time lapse, the
 The hydrostatic pressure force on the dam face is maximum Qb.

 The tailwater valley should not be damaged by Qb.

Fp  Bh2 / 2
Qb < QL
 A drawdown of the reservoir level is followed by a stress relief.
Accordingly, drawing down an endangered dam is highly efficient. where QL is the limit tailwater discharge.

 Drawdown by the bottom outlet has to be fast  The drawdown should not cause shore slides.

Qb > Qo Qb < (Qo + Qs)

where Qs is the allowable discharge for shore protection.

Acceptable bottom
outlet dimensions
The allowable discharge Qs can be estimated from the limit drawdown
h=h(Qb)
velocity us h
Solution
Qo+Qs
h domain
us  
t

and
Qs = us A

where A is the reservoir surface area.

Qb
The limit drawdown velocity is related to allowable pore water velocity of Qo QL
the groundwater flow along the shores of the reservoir.
Optimization of head-discharge relation for design discharge of bottom
outlet.
 Flushing of sediments
 For flood conditions, the approach discharge Qo is large and the limit
discharge QL is small. Then, domain of solution shrinks, and can even
vanish.

 During flood periods, a drawdown is thus impossible.  In certain cases, bottom outlets are used for sediment flushing.

 Usually, one would choose average discharge conditions for the design.
 The drawdown time is an important parameter. Under emergency, one
would like to draw down the top layers of the reservoir only, in a few days or
weeks.
 Continuity of the sediment transport is important. If it deposits in the
tailwater the bottom outlet may be submerged and thus endangered.
 The ratio between water and sediment has to be such that it
corresponds to the transport capacity of the tailwater.

 Bottom outlet is not a structure for permanent use due to limitations

regarding cavitation, hydrodynamic forces, abrasion and vibrations. It should,
however, allow a complete emptying of the reservoir when necessary.

Design Principles
Flood and residual discharge
A useful design is the combination of diversion tunnel and bottom outlet.
 Combined use of overflow spillway and the bottom outlet may be
allowed for flood conditions.

 For this purpose multiple bottom outlets may be constructed.

 A bottom outlet designed according to previous criteria is normally

too large to fit for the control of residual discharge.

 It had to be operated permanently with an extremely small opening

not suited hydraulically. Therefore, a small outlet is often added to Karakaya dam: 1 Intake structure, 2 Diversion tunnels,
satisfy the needs for residual discharge. 3 Bottom outlet chambers, 4 Upstream cofferdam,
5 Service building, 6 Outlet works, 7 Powerhouse.
For smaller dams, a culvert type bottom outlet may also be considered
because of the simple design.

Possible arrangements for the bottom outlet

b) Bottom outlet culvert, not accessible except for minimum reservoir

level, with two gates close to the inlet.
a) Diversion tunnel used as bottom outlet, with access through a shaft.

c) Diversion tunnel used as combined spillway and bottom outlet for

morning glory spillways. d) Gravity dam with bottom outlet that is much shorter than for an
earth dam.
 Hydraulic requirements for a bottom outlet
Technical requirements for a bottom outlet 1- Pressurized flow
2- Free surface flow
3- Tunnel inlet
 Smooth flow for completely opened structure. 4- Gate chamber
5- Air supply
6- Tunnel outlet
 Excellent performance for all flows under partial openings.

 Effective energy dissipation at terminal outlets.

 Structure without leakage.

 Simple and immediate application.

 Easy access for maintenance and service.

 Economic and useful design.

 Pressurized flow upstream of the gate.
 Long life.  Free surface flow downstream of the gate.
 A trash rack is provided at the inlet.

 The tunnel often has a horseshoe profile.

Hydraulic phenomena that must be considered in the
 The tunnel section contracts to a rectangular cross-section shortly
before the gate chamber. design of bottom outlet
 Average velocity at the bottom outlet is large
 Downstream from the gate chamber, the tunnel is expanded both
laterally and at the tunnel ceiling.
 Cavitation
 For long tunnels an aeration conduit behind the gate chamber
 Abrasion
may be required.
 Aerated flow
 The air supply conduit has to be designed so that the gate
chamber is safe against submergence from the tunnel.
 Sediment flow due to reservoir sedimentation
 It is imperative that submergence of the bottom outlet is inhibited.
 Floating debris or sediment deposition
The discharge is then fully controlled with the gates.
 Gate vibration
 Submergence will cause the mechanical equipment be wetted in
the gate section.
 Air entrainment

 Free gate outflow reduces the potential of gate vibration and

cavitation.

 A bottom outlet should always be designed for free surface flow.

 Aeration of flow just after the gate is required for rapid energy
dissipation and to reduce the risk of cavitation.

 The aeration of flow may originate from three different sources 1) Tunnel outlet in a counter-current air flow along the outlet roof.

2) Air supply conduit by which the underpressure of the surface air is

reduced.

3) Bottom aerator that counter problems with cavitation damage.

Flow types (without bottom aerator)

a) Spray flow for relative gate

opening below 10%, with an c) Foamy flow for a tunnel almost full
extremely high air entrainment. with air-water flow.

b) Free flow as typical for bottom d) Hydraulic jump with a free

outlets, and accompanied by features surface tailwater flow due to
of supercritical flow, such as shock tailwater submergence.
waves and two-phase flow.
 Gate Controlled Discharge

e) Hydraulic jump with transition to

pressurized tailwater flow.

Qa
a0

a Q Cca

f) Fully pressurized flow caused by a

deep tailwater submergence.
Gate flow may be either free or submerged. For free gate flow, the space
behind the gate is filled with air of pressure head ha. If the efflux is into the
atmosphere, ha=0.
 In applications, cases d, e and f should be avoided because of
possibility of dangerous surging in the channel.

Based on energy considerations, the underflow discharge of a gate is

given by Cavitation
Q  C c ab 2g (H  h e  C c a  h a )
1/ 2
 Cavitation is defined as formation of bubble or void in a liquid.

where
Cc is the contraction coefficient,
a the gate opeing,  Cavitation occurs by decreasing the local pressure under constant
b the gate width, and temperature.
H-∆he the head on the gate with ∆he, the head loss from the
entrance to the gate section.

The contraction coefficient is dependent on the gate geometry and  The local pressure reduction in a fluid flow can be caused by:
opening.
•a decrease of total energy head because of increase in elevation,
For quick calculations of flow rate as function of gate opening one can
assume: •a local increase of velocity and

•turbulence, vortices or large scale separation.

Cc  0.8  0.2(a / a0 )4
 Vapor pressure for water
The water flowing in hydraulic structures contains air bubbles of various
sizes and with numerous impurities. These conditions are necessary to 20
initiate cavitation.
The hydrodynamic parameter describing the cavitation process is
cavitation index
15

p  pv hh
  2 v

pv (kPa)
2
V0 / 2 V0 / 2g 10

where 5
p is local pressure,
pv is vapor pressure and
V0 is the reference velocity typically of the upstream flow.
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
o
Temperature ( C)

Example: a sudden into-the-flow offset

If cavitation occurs close to flow boundaries, then cavitation damage may

happen, and the structure can seriously be damaged.

 > 1.8 : no cavitation  = 1.8 : Incipient cavitation where

cavitation bubbles occasionally can
be observed.
Offset into-the-flow Offset away from-the-flow

Groves Protruding joints

0.3 <  < 1.8 : Developed cavitation  < 0.3 : Supercavitation

Isolated roughness elements causing cavitation

 Incipient cavitation for into-the-flow offset.
Steps in cavitation control
Control of cavitation
Cavitation damage can be controlled by two methods:
 Control of cavitation index by geometry
 Control of cavitation damage by aeration
Incipient cavitation index for chamfered offset.
 Prediction of water surface profiles.
 Determination of pressure head curves.
 Computation of cavitation index curves.
 If there are locations where cavitation is predicted, then the geometry
of the structure or smoothness of the boundary has to be improved.
 If both approaches fail, the flow has to be aerated.
 Capacity of a structure with an aerated flow has to be larger because
of the increase of air-water discharge.