CHAPTER 4

SPILLWAY

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Introduction
• Spillway: Structural component of a dam that evacuates flood
wave from reservoir to a river at the downstream.
• Spillway is safety valve of a dam

It is normally composed of three major components:

• Approach facility: admits flow to the spillway.
• Discharging conduit: evacuates the flow from the approach
facility to an outlet structure.
• The outlet structure (tail water channel): dissipates the
excessive energy of the flow from the discharging conduits and
conveys tranquil flow to the downstream.

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 Introduction
Location of Spillway
• Within the body of the dam
• At one end of it
• Entirely away from it

• For safety, spillways should have sufficient capacity to

discharge floods, likely to occur during the lifetime of the
dam.
Selection of Spillway Design Flood (SDF)
• Prescriptive standards (e.g. USACE guidelines)
• Risk analysis (Minimization of total cost)
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 Introduction
The main idea behind the selection of SDF:
• For dams having large capacities and constructed near the
upstream of settlements, Probable Maximum Flood (PMF)
should be considered.
• For dams located in isolated regions, a reasonable risk can
be taken
• The corresponding design return period and peak discharge
of inflow can be determined through the frequency analysis
• Then spillway design discharge is determined from a
reservoir routing operation.
• Return period of floods to be considered in spillway design
may range from 100 years for diversion weirs to 15000
years or more (PMF) for earth-fill dams.
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Introduction

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Types of Spillways
The more common types are:
1) Straight drop spillway
2) Overflow (Ogee crested)
3) Chute
4) Side Channel
5) Shaft
6) Siphon

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 Straight drop Spillway

• Water flows over a

relatively thin spillway crest
and falls freely to the
downstream
• Suited to thin dams having
almost vertical downstream
faces
• For low head, economical
compared with overflow
type as it saves concrete.
• For high head, structural
instability and erosion at
downstream 9
Overflow Spillways(S-shaped)
❖Most of the spillways are of overflow types

❖Adaptable to almost all types of dams and have large

capacities
❖Have higher hydraulic conformities

❖Allow the passage of flood wave over its crest

❖Are constructed as a separate reinforced concrete

structure at one side of the fill-typed dams
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 Types of overflow spillway
• Uncontrolled (ungated, free)
• Controlled (gated, guided) allows storage of more water
• Almost all recently constructed dams are installed with crest gates to
store more water in the reservoir
•

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Types of overflow spillway

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 Chute spillway
• Chute spillway is an open
channel like structure,
which is constructed on
steep slope of the gully face
with a suitable inlet and
outlet.
• It usually consists of an
inlet, vertical curve section,
steep-sloped channel and
outlet.

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 Shaft spillway
• A shaft spillway is sometimes
called a "morning glory"
spillway.
• It is a hollow tower or shaft,
usually circular, which has a
funnel at its top.
• When the reservoir level rises
above the top of the spillway, the
water flows over its sides and
down into the shaft.
• At the bottom of the shaft, it
enters a tunnel.

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Design Discharge of Spillway
• Design discharge of an overflow spillway can be
determined by integrating velocity distribution over the
cross-sectional flow area on the spillway from the crest to
the free surface. Where: Q : The design
o
discharge of the spillway
which can be determined from
the reservoir routing
performed for a design inflow
hydrograph.
C0 : Spillway discharge
coefficient
L : The effective crest length
H0 : The total head over the
spillway crest, H0=H + ha
ha = u02/2g (the approach
velocity head) 15
Design Discharge of Spillway

L ' = Lt − Nt

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 Design Discharge of Spillway

Plan view of an overflow spillway

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 Design Discharge of Spillway

Spillway discharge
coefficient is affected by
• The geometric features of
spillway
• Hydraulic characteristics of
the approaching flow
• Level of the downstream
apron with respect to
upstream energy level
• The degree of downstream
submergence
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Design Discharge of Spillway

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Design Discharge of Spillway

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Design Discharge of Spillway

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 Design Discharge of Spillway
3. For existing head other than design head
• Spillways rarely operated with their design heads since the design
head corresponds to very large return periods having relatively small
risks.
• Therefore, the discharge coefficient for an existing total operating
head He, should be determined.

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 Design Discharge of Spillway
4.Position of apron level
• For low spillways, (spillways of
diversion weirs) the level of
apron and submergence would
also affect the flow conditions.
• For a given fixed upstream
energy level, the elevation of the
apron has a direct influence on
the total head available at the
downstream.
• The lower the apron elevation, the
greater the total available head at
the downstream and hence greater
the discharge coefficient.

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 Design Discharge of Spillway
5. Submergence effect
• Submergence imposes a retarding
effect to the approaching flow
because of lowered available
head between the upstream and
downstream.
• Therefore, the spillway discharge
coefficient for a submerge case,
Cms, decreases as the
submergence is pronounced .
• However, submergence is only
critical for low spillways.
• The overall spillway discharge
coefficient is obtained by
multiplying the effects of each
aforementioned case 24
Design Discharge of Spillway

H1 and H2 : Heads

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 Crest Gates
• Additional storage above the spillway crest can be attained by
the installation of suitable gates.
• A few meters of water storage above the spillway crest may
correspond to a huge volume of additional water.
• A rectangular transverse section is required at the crest in order
to accommodate gates properly.
• Common spillway gates:
• Underflow gates (i.e. vertical lift gate)
• Radial gates
• Rolling drum gates

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Crest Gates

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Spillway Crest Profile

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Spillway Crest Profile

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Spillway Crest Profile

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Energy Dissipation at the Toe of Overflow Spillway
• Excessive turbulent energy at the toe of an overflow spillway can be
dissipated by a hydraulic jump, which is a phenomenon caused by
the change in the stream regime from supercritical to subcritical with
considerable energy dissipation.
• Stilling basin should be done to prevent scouring at the river bed.

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Energy Dissipation at the Toe of Overflow Spillway

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Energy Dissipation at the Toe of Overflow Spillway

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 Energy Dissipation at the Toe of Overflow Spillway

• Percent energy loss through the hydraulic jump in a

rectangular stilling basin is

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Energy Dissipation at the Toe of Overflow Spillway

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Energy Dissipation at the Toe of Overflow Spillway

If the tail water depth, y3, coincide

with the sequent depth, y2, the
hydraulic jump forms just at toe of
the spillway as shown in Figure
below

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 Energy Dissipation at the Toe of Overflow Spillway

Case 2: Y3<Y2
• If the tail water depth is less than required sequent depth,
the jump moves toward the downstream as can be seen
from Figure below.
• This condition should be eliminated, because water flows at
a very high velocity has a destructive effect on the apron.

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 Energy Dissipation at the Toe of Overflow Spillway
• USBR Basins Types 2, 3, 4

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 Energy Dissipation at the Toe of Overflow Spillway
Case 3: Y3>Y2
• If the tail water depth is greater than required sequent
depth, then this condition can be shown as Figure below
• Jump moves towards the spillway face !
• A long sloping apron (USBR type 5 basin)
• Culvert outlet (USBR type 6 basin)
• Deflector bucket (USBR type 7 basin)

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 Quiz (5%)

1. What are the factors affecting the spile way discharge

coefficient (Ho)

2. List at least three types of the spillway

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