Spillway (3-D & Transient), ANSYS Fluent CFD Simulation Tutorial

Description

In this project, we have modeled a 3-D spillway using ANSYS Fluent software. We perform this CFD project and investigate it by CFD analysis.

Spillways are structures used to pass through excess water and floods from the top to the bottom of the dam. In fact, spillways are structures with a certain height that discharge excess water when the height of the water exceeds its height.

There are different types of spillways, including ogee, step, side, lotus, tunnel, siphon, etc. spillways. The present problem simulates the flow of water through a spillway.

This simulation has been done as a multiphase simulation using air as a primary phase and water as a secondary phase.  The height of the water level at the inlet is 0.155 m and the total height of the model is 0.306 m and considering that the height of the dam is 0.156 m.

The 3-D geometry of the present model is designed using Design Modeler software. The meshing of the model has been done using ANSYS Meshing software and the mesh type is unstructured. The element number is 698691.

Spillway Methodology

To define the two-phase flow in this simulation, a two-phase VOF (volume of fluid) model is used. Also, in this simulation, the gravity effect on the fluid is considered equal to -9.81 m/s2 along the y-axis.

Spillway Conclusion

The resulting contours show the performance of his spillway. It is clear that the water flow is well passed by the spillway. Most flow velocities are in the area where the geometry is smaller and the flow enters more densely.