2015 – Physical and computational scour modelling system analysis- Case study for Paradise Dam, Queensland

Bronson L McPherson, Eric J Lesleighter, David C Scriven, Erik F R Bollaert

A number of medium to major floods in Queensland caused substantial scour around spillway structures. This included the Paradise Dam primary spillway which experienced significant scour of the rock body below the spillway during flooding in January 2013. The occurrence has led to a series of evaluations of the geology, and the prevailing hydraulics behaviour as part of a process to determine the scour mechanism, and to determine the response of the spillway and areas downstream to future floods of larger magnitude. Part of the process has been to utilise a large-scale physical model to obtain transient data which together with the detailed geologic assessment would be incorporated into the comprehensive scour modelling procedures developed by Dr Erik Bollaert, AquaVision Engineering, Switzerland.
The paper will describe the design and construction of the physical model with special features to obtain pressure transients from more than 60 transducers, and velocity transients in more than 40 locations using Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter (ADV) instrumentation. The features of the rock scour will be discussed and the geology of the area below the spillway apron will be described. The range of discharges, and the model’s results including the pressure and velocity characteristics will be described in detail to illustrate the violent nature of the turbulence in the energy dissipation zone. The paper will go on to describe the computational scour modelling procedures of calibration and application, demonstrating a “system” approach to spillway scour analysis for plunge pools and similar situations with energy dissipation on natural materials.
Keywords: Spillways, flood hydraulics, hydraulic modelling, rock scour, transients, numerical analysis, energy dissipation.

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