Numerical Model of Flow and Suspended Sediment Transport in the Reservoir of Rockfill Dam

Building non-core rock-fill dams is certainly one of the most effective methods of controlling floods. In flood situations, the input-flow of these dams typically contains a considerable amount of sediments. This underscores the need to study the flow behavior and sediment concentrations so that one could identify the amount of passing and depositing sediments, and decide on their management, all of which have been taken into account in the present research. Thus, first, on the basis of numerical solution of saint-venant equations, the flow characteristics (e.g. depth and velocity) were calculated, using finite volume method with a completely implicit method, and then the concentration of the sediments at different points of the reservoir were determined, using discretization of the convection diffusion equation. The results of the experiments conducted on the reservoirs of rock-fill dams in the hydraulic laboratory of Bu Ali Sina Un., Hamedan were then employed to assess the functioning and validation of the mathematical model of flow simulator and sediment concentration. On the basis of the comparison drawn between the data yielded by measurement of sediment concentration and the calculations conducted in eight sections and three height layers of 5, 10 and 15cm in the reservoir of rock-fill dams, the mean value of the relative error of sediment concentration was found to be 9.17 percent, indication a good enough correspondence between the output of the mathematical simulator and the value measured in the experimental model.