Asian Research Journal of Current Science

Water is one of the most precious commodities available in nature. Most of the rivers are not perennial and carry maximum flood discharge during the monsoon season every year. The earthen dam's crest may overtop during severe flood events. As a result, the structure's integrity is at risk and could fail catastrophically on the downstream side due to erosive flow conditions. Therefore, applying graded overlays to the earthen dams has become more popular to reduce erosion energy from overtopping the flows. A stepped spillway is considered mainly to safely pass the Maximum Flood Discharge (MFD) without causing overtopping on the existing embankment that is armored with Rolled Compacted Concrete (RCC). Hence, the present study was taken up with the objectives of estimating the selective hydraulic parameters of a stepped spillway and comparing these values with simulation results. A step height of 0.038 m and crest length of 50 m was considered for the energy dissipation at the constant d/s slope of 14^o and discharges varying from 10 to 41 cumec. The numerical simulations were performed using CFD ANSYS software. A 2D geometry was created in Workbench Design Modeler with suitable boundary conditions. The k-ε turbulence model was employed for the present study. CFD ANSYS simulation results were interpreted using User Defined Function (UDF). The analytical computations were found to have good agreement with simulation results.