883

2012,24(6):883-887
DOI: 10.1016/S1001-6058(11)60316-8

HYDRAULIC CHARACTERISTICS OF SLIT-TYPE ENERGY DISSIPA-

TERS*

WU Jian-hua, MA Fei, YAO Li

College of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China,
Email: jhwu@hhu.edu.cn

(Received September 19, 2012, Revised November 7, 2012)

Abstract: Slit-Type Energy Dissipater (STED) has been a kind of important devices for energy dissipation. The flow through the
STED is longitudinally extended and the velocity is decreased by means of the cross-section increase of the flow, which is closely
related to geometric and hydraulic parameters of the STED. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate and control the hydraulic condi-
tions through the STED, including the nappe section form, the conversion condition, and the effect of energy dissipation with the
geometric and hydraulic parameters. In the present work, “I-type” and “T-type” nappe forms were experimentally classified, the con-
version conditions of the nappe forms were empirically provided, and the effects of geometric parameters of the STED on energy
dissipation were roughly analyzed. It is concluded that the contraction angle of the STED is a key factor influencing the hydraulic
characteristics of the STED.

Key words: contraction angle, energy dissipation, fin, nappe form, shock wave, Slit-Type Energy Dissipater (STED)

Introduction  Early in 1990, Li and Liu[10] proposed a hydraulic

In recent 20 years, the rapid developments of
large-scale hydropower projects with high dams have
taken place in China[1,2]. It brings about tremendous
pressures for the project constructions. The conven-
tional approaches of energy dissipation and scour con-
trol have faced new challenge due to large unit discha-
rge and deep gorge topography. In this aspect, Slit-
Type Energy Dissipaters (STED) are proved to be of
high efficiency on the basis of their geometric chara-
cteristics[3,4]. The flow is transversely contracted and
longitudinally extended when it leaves the edge of the
STED, and the energy dissipation ratio greatly increa-
ses making use of air entrainment, and violent turbule-
nce of the flow[5]. Some of hydropower projects have
used this kind of the STEDs in their release works,
such as the Longyangxia, Lijiaxia, Geheyan, Manwan,
and Shuibuya Projects in China[6,7], the Cabril Project
in Portugal, and the Almendra Project in Spanin[8].
There are some investigations about the STEDs[9].
* Project supported by the National Natural Science Foun-
dation of China (Grant No. 51179056).
Biography: WU Jian-hua (1958-), Male, Ph. D., Professor
calculation method of the STEDs. Further investiga-
tions were conducted by Zhang and Wu[11], Yang[12],
Dai and Ning[13], Boss and Hager[14], and Charles[15].
Considering the effect of flow aeration, Liu and Ni[16]
suggested the estimation of the jet length with a
reduction coefficient.
Liu and Qu[17] observed the section form of the
nappe downstream of the STEDs in their physical
model tests. It was noticed that, along the flow dire-
ction, there are three kinds of section forms of the
nappe, i.e., rectangular compact section, spreading and
breaking ones. The rectangular compact section
appears at the position just leaving the edge of the
energy dissipater, then the spreading form exists on
the top due to the turbulence and air entrainment and
in the low part due to the effect of the gravity, and
further, the breaking one occurs and its mushroom
type section is produced with the two-side drops on
the top of the section. It should be reminded that those
section forms occur only at various positions along the
flow direction.
In fact, there are the changes of the nappe forms
of the flow, which are related to the shock waves
brought about by the STEDs. Meanwhile, there are
also the fins beneath the nappe in certain conditions of
884

the flow. Hence it is necessary to determine the nappe
forms and the hydraulic characteristics of the flow for
the designs of the STEDs.
The objectives of the present work are to investi-
gate the nappe forms and the hydraulic characteristics
of the flow through the STEDs by physical model
experiments, and to establish the empirical expression
of the conversions of the above-mentioned nappe
forms.
arctan (e / L j1 ) , is the fin plunging angle. Figure 3
shows the geometry of the STED, where B and b
are the widths before and after the contraction section,
respectively, and B = 0.15 m , b / B is the contra-
ction ratio, T = arctan[( B  b) / 2 L] , is the contraction
angle, L is the length of the contraction section.

1. Experimental set-up and methodology

1.1 Experimental set-up

The experiments were conducted at the high-
speed flow laboratory at Hohai University (Nanjing,
China). The experiment model was designed on the Fig.3 Sketch of STED geometry
basis of a middle outlet with the scale of 1/40 for the
Shannipo Hydropower Project. The working section Table 1 Experimental cases and parameters of models
of the STED, made from Perspex, is 0.15 m wide and Cases b (m) L (m) T (o) b/B
1.10 m long, and the bottom angle is –17.15o to the
M1 0.08 0.1125 17.28 0.533
horizontal plane. The maximum available discharge is
135 l/s, and the water head ( H ) varies from 0.4 m to M2 0.08 0.1750 11.31 0.533
1.6 m (see Fig.1). M3 0.08 0.2250 8.84 0.533
M4 0.09 0.1125 14.93 0.600
M5 0.10 0.1125 12.53 0.667

Table 1 lists the experimental cases and the geo-

metric parameters of the STED model. There are two
kinds of geometric variables, i.e., b and L . The
cases were designed to investigate the influences of
the geometric variables of the STED on the nappe
form and the fin, as well as the hydraulic parameters.
Cases M1, M2 and M3 keep b constant, and in cases
Fig.1 Experimental set-up M1, M4 and M5, L is the same. In the experiments,
the Froude number varies from 2.02 to 3.49. The para-
meters H , L j1 , L j 2 and d were directly measu-
red by steel ruler.

2. Experimental results and discussions

2.1 Observation of flow

Fig.2 Sketch of flow through STED
1.2 Experimental cases and methodology
Figure 2 is the sketch of the flow from a STED,
in which L j1 and L j 2 are the lower and upper sur-
face lengths of the nappe, respectively, d is the app-
roach flow depth, e = 0.25 m , is the vertical distance
of the bottom to the measured plane, and E =
The flow upstream of the STED is the one of
open channel with hydrostatic pressure distribution.
Entering into the contraction section, the flow narro-
wed immediately and expanded vertically. The rapid
shock waves are produced due to the effects of the
sidewall contraction, and have significant effects on
the flow.
Except the section forms along the flow descri-
bed by Liu and Qu[17], it could be observed that, there
are two kinds of nappe forms under the conditions of
different STED geometry and Froude numbers, i.e.,
“I-type” and “T-type” nappe sections (see Fig.4). The
 885

rapid shock waves are brought about by the contra-
ction of the STED. The “I-type” nappe form appears
at low Froude number, while the “T-type” nappe form
occurs when the flow passes through STED with large
Froude number. The type of the flow, obviously, is re-
lated to the STED geometry and Froude number, and
there are the threshold values of the conversions of the
types of flows.
value, there does not exist the fin, for example, T 
8.84o for case M3. The fins occur if T t 11.31o for
case M2. The flow extends longitudinally, and then
the lower surface angle ( E ) , and the range ( 'E ) of
the fins increase as T increases (see Figs.5 and 6).
Finally, both E and 'E increase mainly with T ,
and the increment of E (or 'E ) is about 4o for the
increase of each 3o. So, it is necessary to control the
contraction angle to avoid the fins beneath the flow.

Fig.5 Variation of E with Fr

Fig.4 Nappe forms

Meanwhile, the fins beneath the flow were obse-

rved in certain geometric and hydraulic conditions,
and they should be noticed. The fins have high speed
similar to the flow although they are thinner than the Fig.6 Variation of 'E with Fr
nappe body.
2.3 Nappe form and conversion
2.2 Fins
As stated above, the nappe sections of the flow
The fins beneath the flow are a kind of specific
could be divided into two kinds of the forms, i.e., the
phenomena of the flow from the STED. In the present
“I-type” and “T-type” sections. The experiments de-
work, the bottom of the outlet of the STED was desi-
monstrated that the nappe form is related to the geo-
gned as –17.5o, and the boundary of the fins was
metric parameters of the STED and the hydraulic
expressed by the lower surface of the nappe measured
parameters of the flow through the STED.
in E . The range between –17.5º of the bottom and
angle E was defined as the fins. From the experime-
nts, the fins are thinner than the nappe body, and in-
crease longitudinally the section of the flow.
Figures 5 and 6 are the variations of the lower
surface measured for E and the range of the fin 'E
with the Froude number ( Fr ) , respectively. Firstly,
either E or 'E , varies linearly with Fr , but the
variations in them are small. The maximum values,
for the angles E and 'E of case M1, are only 3.3o
from 2.31 to 3.49 of Fr . Secondly, as is shown in Fig.7 Variation L j 2 / d with Fr at various contraction len-
Table 1, the contraction angle (T ) is the key factor
gths
resulting in the fin, and if it is smaller than a certain
886
Fig.8 Variation L j 2 / d with Fr at various contraction
widths
Figures 7 and 8 exhibit the variations of the
upper surface length ( L j 2 / d ) of the nappe with the
Froude number (Fr ) at the various contraction
lengths ( L) and widths (b) , respectively. It could
be seen that L j 2 / d increases approximately linearly
with Fr for either lengths ( L) or widths (b) of the
contraction section. The effects of lengths ( L) or
widths (b) are all owed to the results of the contra-
ction angle (T ) . The shorter L or smaller b pro-
duces the larger L j 2 / d for the same Fr . On the
other hand, it could be observed that, there are the
threshold values of the conversions of the nappe form
of the flow for each geometric STED with the change
of Fr , stood for by the dots with “T” (see Figs.7 and
8).
The threshold values, from Fig.7, are 2.31, 2.58
and 3.37 of ( Fr ) thres , respectively, for cases M1, M2
and M3. It means that the conversions of the nappe
forms occur from the “I-type” to the “T-type” if the
Froude numbers reach the magnitudes above men-
tioned. The nappe forms stay in the extent of the “I-
type” when Fr  ( Fr ) thres , and the nappe form of “T-
type” appears if Fr ! ( Fr ) thres . The similar pheno-
mena of the nappe form conversions appear for cases
M1, M4 and M5 (see Fig.8). Those conversions of the
nappe forms, naturally, owe to the effect of the rapid
shock waves resulted from the contraction of the
STEDs. The strong rapid shock waves will bring
about “T-type” nappe form of the flow with the top
crown of the nappe.
Meanwhile, the effects of the contraction length
or width result in the changes of the contraction angle
of the STED, and then the rapid shock waves. The
small contraction angle decreases ( Fr ) thres for either
cases M1, M2 and M3 or cases M1, M4 and M5 (see
Figs.7 and 8).
Figure 9 shows the variation of L j 2 / d with
( Fr ) thres for the comprehensive geometric parameters,
including all the cases in Table 1. Regression analysis
for the data presents the limit of the conversions of the
nappe forms. Using the data of Fig.9, the best fitting is
§ Lj2 ·
¨ ¸ = 3Fr  0.68 (1)
© d ¹ thres
where ( L j 2 / d ) thres is the upper surface length corre-
sponding to the threshold values of ( Fr ) thres . Thus,
the chart of L j 2 / d  Fr could be divided into two
parts, i.e., the “T-type” nappe form zone above the
limit and the “I-type” one below limit.
Fig.9 Conversion of nappe forms
2.4 Energy dissipation
To compare the effects of energy dissipation for
various geometric and hydraulic parameters of the
STEDs, the total energy ( E ) at the measured plane
could be defined as
p D v2
E=z+ + (2)
J 2g
where z = 0 for the measured plane, p / J = 0 due
to the free surface flow, D | 1 , g = 9.81 m3 / s , and
v is the average velocity of the flow. Thus, Eq.(2)
could be rewritten as
v2
E= (3)
2g
Assume that for all the cases listed in Table 1, there
are the similar section shapes of the flow at the mea-
sured plane, then v equals to approximately
Q
v= (4)
'l w
where Q is the discharge, w the width of the flow,

and 'L = L j 2  L j1 the longitudinal length of the
flow section. If the widths of the flows are roughly the
same for two cases, then the effects of the energy dis-
sipation (K ) could be compared by
2 2
E2 § v2 · § ' L1 ·
K= =¨ ¸ =¨ ¸ (5)
E1 © v1 ¹ © ' L2 ¹
Figure 10 shows the variation of 'L / d with
Fr for the cases in Table 1. It could be seen that
there are differences in various cases except M2 and
M4, and the contraction angle is the key factor influe-
ncing 'L / d , then the effectiveness of the energy
dissipation. By making use of the data from Fig.10, it
could be estimated that for cases M1 and M3, K =
0.51 and 0.43 at Fr = 2.5 and 3.5, respectively.
Fig.10 Variations of 'L / d with Fr
3. Conclusions
For the STED, it is the contraction angle that
could bring about the rapid shock waves, and then
produce two kinds of the nappe forms of the flow, i.e.,
the “I-type” and “T-type” nappe forms. Meanwhile,
the fins beneath the nappe could appear if the contra-
ction angle is large enough, such as T ! 11.31o. On
the other hand, the contraction angle is also a key
factor influencing the effects of the energy dissipation
of the STED.
There exist the threshold values of the conversion
of the nappe forms, which are related to ( Fr ) thres for
various geometric parameters of the STED. Equation
(1) gives the empirical expression of those conve-
rsions suitable for the geometries of the STEDs in
Table 1.
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