Abstract: (4996 Views)
Rock chutes are natural river training structures and are efficient energy dissipaters too. From the hydraulic and
environmental point of view, rock chutes have become important structures in the natural river morphology. A physical study
was conducted and flow properties were measured over rough bed materials of a rock chute, which was assembled at the
PITLAB center of the University of Pisa, Italy. Experiments were performed for slopes varying between 0.18≤ S ≤0.38, 0.03 <
dc/H < 0.54 and for ramp lengths Lr between 1.17 m ≤Lr≤3.6 m. This paper presents the energy dissipation characteristics of
the two-phase flows in the presence of two different base materials. In addition, the dissipative process was also analyzed in
the presence of reinforcing boulders located on the base material. The findings showed that energy dissipation rate slightly
increases with the boulder concentrations for the tested slopes and materials. The experiments were conducted for different
rock chute lengths in order to understand its effect on the energy dissipation. An empirical expression is developed for
determining the energy dissipation characteristics over different base materials in different ramp length conditions in twophase
flows. Results have been compared with the results obtained for stepped chutes and found a similar decreasing trend of
dissipation rate for dc/Lr ≤0.1.