Performance of rectangular labyrinth weir- an experimental and numerical study

Labyrinth weirs are commonly used to increase the capacity of existing spillways and provide more efficient spillways for new dams due to their high specific discharge capacity compared to the linear weir. In the present study, experimental and numerical investigation was conducted to improve the rectangular labyrinth weir performance. In this context, four configurations were tested to evaluate the influence of the entrance shape and alveoli width on its discharge capacity. The experimental models, three models of rectangular labyrinth weir with rounded entrance and one with flat entrance, were tested in rectangular channel conditions for inlet width to outlet width ratios (a/b) equal to 0.67, 1 and 1.5. The results indicate that the rounded entrance increases the weir efficiency by up to 5%. A ratio a/b equal to 1.5 leads to an 8 and 18% increase in the discharge capacity compared to a/b ratio equal to 1 and 0.67, respectively. In addition, a numerical simulation was conducted using the opensource CFD OpenFOAM to analyze and provide more information about the flow behavior over the tested models. A comparison between the experimental and numerical discharge coefficient was performed and good agreement was found (Mean Absolute Relative Error of 4–6%).

Using CFD modelling to study hydraulic flow over labyrinth weirs

Compound labyrinth weir is a new type of labyrinth weirs that consider a good applicable choice for increasing the capacity of discharge. The flow over a compound labyrinth weirs is a complex problem because the flow behavior is three-dimension. The present study aims to simulate the flow over the compound labyrinth weir into the critical regions that can not be observed when using an experimental test. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) programme was utilised to implement a sensitive analysis for this purpose and different flow conditions. The MAPE and RMSE indices were utilised to verify the CFD results with experimental work. The statistics indices of the maximum error ME, RMSE and MAPE were 4.7%, 0.033 and 3.9 respectively. Therefore, the findings showed that there is a good matching between the experimental and CFD results. The CFD results demonstrated that the hydraulics behaviour of the compound labyrinth weir was similar to the oblique and linear weirs in high discharges. The results also confirmed that air cavities and bubbles existed behind the nappe flow in addition to the negative pressure that may occur beneath the nappe when the flow is aerated. Furthermore, the flow was divided into two parts and most streamlines were concentrated over the notches. Moreover, the flow velocity passing through the notches was bigger than the flow velocity over the high crest of the compound labyrinth weir.

Using data mining methods to improve discharge coefficient prediction in Piano Key and Labyrinth weirs

As a remarkable parameter, the discharge coefficient (Cd) plays an important role in determining weirs' passing capacity. In this research work, the support vector machine (SVM) and the gene expression programming (GEP) algorithms were assessed to predict Cd of piano key weir (PKW), rectangular labyrinth weir (RLW), and trapezoidal labyrinth weir (TLW) with gathered experimental data set. Using dimensional analysis, various combinations of hydraulic and geometric non-dimensional parameters were extracted to perform simulation. The superior model for the SVM and the GEP predictor for PKW, RLW, and TLW included , and respectively. The results showed that both algorithms are potential in predicting discharge coefficient, but the coefficient of determination (RMSE, R2, Cd(DDR)max) illustrated the superiority of the GEP performance over the SVM. The results of the sensitivity analysis determined the highest effective parameters for PKW, RLW, and TLW in predicting discharge coefficients are , , and Fr respectively.

Introducing the T-shaped weir: a new nonlinear weir

In the present study, a new nonlinear weir called the T-Shaped Weir (TSW), which is a combination of the Labyrinth Weir (LW) and the Piano Key Weir (PKW), was introduced, and its hydraulic performance was compared with the PKW. Based on the presence of the vertical walls at the inlet key, outlet key, or both keys, the TSW weirs were classified as type A, B, and C weirs, respectively. The flow pattern of different TSW cases was analyzed, and the discharge coefficient curves were provided. Furthermore, to accurately study the hydrodynamics of the tested weirs, the 3D numerical simulations were performed using the FLOW-3D software. The results showed that inserting a vertical wall at the upstream of the outlet keys (C-TSW type) has a negligible effect on the hydraulic performance of the PKW. A maximum increase of 16% occurred in the discharge coefficient of the B-TSW in comparison to the PKW, and up to a head to height ratio (Ht/p) of 0.45, effect of the vertical wall on increasing the performance of the B-TSW was maintained. Based on the experimental and numerical tests, the optimal height ratio of the vertical wall (Pd/P) in B-TSW with highest discharge capacity was determined equal to 0.4.