21st Century Dam Design Advances and Adaptations

31st Annual USSD Conference San Diego, California, April 11-15, 2011

Hosted by Black & Veatch Corporation GEI Consultants, Inc. Kleinfelder, Inc. MWH Americas, Inc. Parsons Water and Infrastructure Inc. URS Corporation

On the Cover
Artist's rendition of San Vicente Dam after completion of the dam raise project to increase local storage and provide a more flexible conveyance system for use during emergencies such as earthquakes that could curtail the regions imported water supplies. The existing 220-foot-high dam, owned by the City of San Diego, will be raised by 117 feet to increase reservoir storage capacity by 152,000 acre-feet. The project will be the tallest dam raise in the United States and tallest roller compacted concrete dam raise in the world.

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UPGRADING LAKE HOLIDAY SPILLWAY USING A LABYRINTH WEIR John Ackers1 Felicity Bennett2 Greg Zamensky3 ABSTRACT A new labyrinth weir and spillway are to be constructed at Lake Holiday Dam to satisfy the recently updated dam safety regulations for the State of Virginia. Subject to compliance with a number of conditions, this requires the spillway to be capable of conveying the peak outflow resulting from a flood generated by a rainstorm comprising 60% of the probable maximum precipitation (PMP). A number of options were considered for upgrading the spillway capacity, but this paper focuses on the chosen option, which comprises: a 120 ft wide, four-bay labyrinth weir; a short length of plain chute and intermediate stilling basin; and a baffle-chute spillway, discharging to a natural gulley clear of the dam miter. The paper describes the approach to the hydraulic design of the labyrinth weir, based initially on the empirical approach set out by Tullis et al (1995), then on flow behavior analyses using computational fluid dynamics (CFD), to address the following issues: the onset of drowning, impairing the hydraulic performance of the weir; the energy losses through the structure; confirmation of the stage/discharge rating; and the pressures on the structure, in particular guarding against cavitation. INTRODUCTION Lake Holiday Dam, which was built in 1971 and is owned by a private homeowners association, impounds Isaac Creek near Winchester, VA. The dam is a 100-foot high earth embankment, and is classified as a high-hazard structure. The original spillway arrangement consists of six culvert arches each measuring approximately 15 feet wide and 9 feet high beneath the dam crest road. The spillway configuration is not capable of safely managing the required spillway design flood (SDF) for a high hazard structure in Virginia the probable maximum flood (PMF). The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation Dam Safety Division (DCR) has been working with the dam owner for several years to address the inadequate spillway.
Technical Director, Black & Veatch, 69 London Road, Redhill, Surrey RH1 1LQ, UK, ackersj@bv.com Senior Hydraulics Engineer, Black & Veatch, 69 London Road, Redhill, Surrey RH1 1LQ, UK, bennettf@bv.com 3 Regional Practice Leader, Black & Veatch, 18310 Montgomery Village Avenue, Suite 500, Gaithersburg, MD 20879, zamenskyg@bv.com
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Recent changes to the Virginia Dam Safety Regulations (April 2010) resulted in a reduction to the required SDF for the Lake Holiday Dam, from the PMF to the flood resulting from 90% of two-thirds of the PMP, that is 60% of the PMP. The revised SDF produces a peak inflow to the reservoir of about 23,000 cubic feet per second (cfs). The current spillway comprises an almost flat, approximately 110-foot wide, reinforced concrete channel structure with training walls at the north abutment of the dam, discharging to a gully that extends outside the north downstream miter of the dam. The 110-foot wide channel is crossed by South Lakeview Drive, beneath which six corrugated metal arch culverts, each 15 feet, 4 inches wide by 9 feet, 3 inches high, currently convey the flow (Figure 1). The culverts are inadequate for conveying the SDF, and uncontrolled overtopping of the dam crest would occur under the design flood conditions.

Figure 1. Existing Culverts Under South Lakeview Drive, With Dam Beyond After detailed consideration of various options, the Owner decided to replace the existing spillway culverts and channel with a 120-foot wide labyrinth weir and downstream baffle block chute (Figure 2) to safely convey and contain the flows before discharge to the gully beyond the dam. The approach channel to the new weir, whose curved alignment is shown in Figure 3, will be deepened. A bridge with precast deck will span over the spillway and the existing road alignment will be slightly modified to match the alignment and grade of the bridge. The bridge will be supported at the center over a pier and at each end on an abutment structure, which also serves as a portion of the training wall for the approach channel. This paper details the hydraulic design of the labyrinth weir and spillway and describes the CFD modeling undertaken to verify and refine the design.

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Figure 2. CFD Model of Proposed Lake Holiday Spillway

Figure 3. Proposed Lake Holiday Spillway Plan

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DESIGN PARAMETERS The current spillway crest elevation, formed by the invert of the culverts, is at 820 feet, and the new weir is to be installed at the same elevation to maintain the same normal lake water level. The current dam crest elevation ranges between about 829 and 830 feet and to minimize wave protection requirements, a target flood surcharge of 7.5 feet was adopted for the weir design. Following preliminary design options which looked at a number of spillway widths, it was agreed with the Owner to widen the spillway, from its original width of 110 feet, to 120 feet. Nearby properties on the northern side of the spillway approach made further widening to this side unattractive and widening to the south could encroach into the dam core. The original approach channel to the existing spillway is not noticeably lower than the invert of the culvert arches (820 feet). Excavation will therefore be required upstream of the new weir to provide a deeper approach between it and the main reservoir body. An approach floor elevation of 811feet was found suitable, taking account of minimizing excavation and cofferdam requirements during construction, whilst not unduly impeding the discharge capacity of the labyrinth weir. The hydrological study for the project (Woodward, 2010) concluded that a rainstorm duration of six hours would produce the greatest inflow to the reservoir for the design event of 60% (two-thirds of 90%) of the PMP. The resulting SDF has a peak reservoir inflow of about 23,000 cfs. A conventional level pond flood routing was carried out for the SDF, using the stagearea-capacity relationship for the reservoir and a preliminary stage-discharge relationship for the labyrinth weir, based on the Tullis et al (1995) approach. The peak outflow obtained from the routing was about 19,000 cfs, which was therefore adopted for refining the design of the labyrinth weir and spillway. Figure 4 shows the flood inflow hydrograph for the SDF, together with the final routed outflow, after the design and stage-discharge relationship had been confirmed.

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24000 22000 20000 18000

Discharge (cfs)

16000 14000 12000 10000 8000 6000 4000 2000 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Inflow Outflow

Time (hours)

Figure 4. Final Flood Routing Through Lake Holiday for SDF LABYRINTH WEIR DESIGN The overall design geometry was established following the calculation procedure given by Tullis et al (1995). The approach adopted was to: use the required discharge capacity based on the rounded routed SDF (19,000 cfs) and target maximum allowable head (7.5 feet); deduct from the maximum head a 0.5 feet allowance for estimated headlosses in the approach channel; add to the design discharge an allowance for the effect of the bridge pier in front of the central vertex, assumed to reduce the discharge capacity by an amount equivalent to a 3ft wide section of conventional weir (head 7.0 feet and coefficient 3.09), that is by 170 cfs; and use a design spreadsheet to determine a suitable geometry for the labyrinth weir, consistent with a nominal design discharge of 19,170 cfs at a total head of 7.0 feet just upstream of the weir. Figure 5 shows the plan geometry of the chosen labyrinth spillway. In this case, flow is from top to bottom and the weir will be built between abutment walls that are 120 feet apart. The design values of the geometric parameters chosen are tabulated alongside the picture.

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Figure 5. Geometry of Labyrinth Weir (after Tullis et al, 1995)

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823 Basic empirical labyrinth rating Adjusted for bridge pier With estimated approach losses

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820 0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 Discharge (cfs) 12000 14000 16000 18000 20000

Figure 6. Preliminary Stage-Discharge Relationship for Lake Holiday The performance of the labyrinth weir depends strongly on the weir height (P1) above the approach channel floor. A weir height of P1 = 9 feet (approach channel floor elevation 811feet) was found to give a total head slightly within the target value of 7.0 feet just upstream of the weir, that is excluding approach losses. Figure 6 shows the preliminary stage-discharge relationship, with the headlosses in the approach channel based on a 1688 21st Century Dam Design Advances and Adaptations

Manning n value of 0.035, assuming a simple 120 feet wide rectangular approach channel of length 225 feet. Weir Crest Profile, Nappe Aeration and Cavitation Protection A number of weir crest profile variants were considered by Tullis et al (1995). The discharge capacity calculation above is based on the quarter-round profile, but a halfround profile was adopted in order to keep the flow generally attached to the downstream face, in the interests of reducing the noise generated by the weir. The half-round profile was also shown by the CFD analysis to provide a higher discharge coefficient than the quarter-round profile. The minimum pressure predicted at the crest was calculated based on research published in 1959, and given by Bos (1989). It applies to flow which approaches the weir crest perpendicularly, so it is not strictly applicable to the oblique flow that applies over most of the labyrinth weir crest. It is, however, applicable to the flow over the upstream vertices and can be taken to be conservative for the rest of the labyrinth. A wall thickness of 2 feet was chosen primarily for structural reasons, giving a crest radius of 1 foot. Although this would result in a minimum gauge pressure of 25 feet at the SDF (which is below the normally adopted limit of 20 feet) cavitation would not arise for flows up to at least 50% PMF (approximately 16,000 cfs). This was deemed acceptable, since such a peak flow has a very low probability of occurrence during the remaining life of the reservoir, and any cavitation damage to the weir at greater flows, although potentially significant, would not impair the discharge capacity of the spillway. Downstream Slab Design The hydraulic design treatments of labyrinth weirs by Tullis et al (1995) and Falvey (2003) take full account of the floor elevation of the approach channel and upstream embayments of the labyrinth, but matters are not so clear-cut regarding the downstream embayments and exit channel. There is an implication in the literature that, if the labyrinth is built on a common base slab (that is, with an equal weir height upstream and downstream) and the channel immediately downstream of the labyrinth runs away steeply enough to sustain supercritical flow, then the weir should perform as expected. Falvey (2003) shows the use of a common base slab, although he does warn in Chapter 6: If the water level in the space between the labyrinth weirs exceeds the crest elevation, the weir is submerged. Submergence decreases the flow rate over the weir. He also adds the reservation that more research is needed on the submergence effects with labyrinth weirs at the end of the same chapter. Determining whether the weir discharge capacity would be impaired by submergence is far from straightforward, since it depends on the following inter-related issues: the flow conditions (including whether subcritical or supercritical) in the channel downstream of the embayments;

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the flow profile and energy grade line within the downstream embayments; the magnitude of energy losses associated with the flow passing obliquely over the weirs into the embayments; and the effect of the conditions in the embayments on the flow passing over the weirs. This is a design feature that was therefore investigated using CFD, as described below. SPILLWAY AND BAFFLE CHUTE DESIGN During preliminary design, a number of options for energy dissipation downstream of the labyrinth weir were considered. These included a variety of hydraulic jump stilling basins and a baffle block spillway. A baffle block spillway was chosen for a number of reasons: although a small basin would be required upstream of a baffle block spillway in order to ensure subcritical approach conditions, it would be shallower and shorter than a full size hydraulic jump stilling basin, therefore requiring less excavation; the baffle block spillway could easily extend downstream to discharge well beyond the dam; and the energy dissipation features could reasonably be designed for a rather lesser flow than the SDF, but would still safely convey the flow in the full design flood. The baffle chute spillway was designed using the guidance contained in Engineering Monograph 25 (Peterka, 1978). A design flow of 11,700 cfs was used for the baffle design, this being the maximum outflow estimated for an inflow of 30% PMF. This figure was adopted, as it still represents an extreme flood, but reduces the required capital works. The spillway was also designed so that flows between this magnitude and the full SDF could be safely conveyed, without adversely affecting the hydraulic capacity of the labyrinth weir, but accepting that damage may occur to the spillway and to the gully downstream. The baffle chute design discharge intensity for the 120ft wide spillway was 97.5 cfs/ft, increasing to about 158 cfs/ft at the SFD. Although these are both greater than the recommended maximum of 60 cfs/ft, it may be noted that a baffle chute spillway with a design discharge intensity of 144 cfs/ft (Ackers and Ashraf Akhtar, 2000) has recently been built in Pakistan and has successfully operated at its full design flow. The start of the baffle chute spillway was set at an elevation of 798 feet, giving an upstream minimum energy elevation of about 812 feet at the SFD. This is 8ft below the crest of the labyrinth weir, which should be more than ample to prevent drowning of the weir by the downstream conditions. To perform satisfactorily, flow should approach a baffle block spillway with a low initial velocity as the blocks are designed to prevent undue acceleration of flow down the chute, rather than to cope with a high-velocity incoming flow. A small stilling basin was therefore designed upstream of the baffle chute in order to ensure subcritical approach

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flow. The basin floor elevation was set at 793 feet so that, at 11,700 cfs, a hydraulic jump was ensured by the step up to the start of the baffle chute. Following the EM25 guidance, the basin length was set at twice the conjugate depth of the flow entering the basin, that is to 25 feet. The basin was not specifically designed to prevent sweep-out of the hydraulic jump at the SDF, although this is difficult to assess with the presence of the baffle blocks affecting the head at the top of the baffle chute. This was analyzed, however, using CFD, as described below. The initial design for the baffle blocks was based on the baffle chute design discharge of 11,700 cfs, giving a baffle height of 5ft-4in, based on the EM25 guidance. As a result of observations in the CFD analyses described below, the block height was increased to 7 feet. CFD MODELING As noted above, computational fluid dynamics analyses were used to verify and refine the design of the labyrinth weir and spillway. CFD is a computer modeling method which simulates three-dimensional fluid flows using the finite volume method. The problem is discretised into numerous small elements, each possessing an algebraic approximation for the continuity of mass, momentum and energy, which are then solved simultaneously. The ANSYS CFX-12 software was used for the analyses in this study. Traditionally, physical model testing would have been carried out for a scheme of this size, but in many cases we feel that excessive use has been made of physical model testing, for example where designs are based closely on published guidance, which has itself been developed from extensive physical model tests. Such considerations largely apply to the design features for the Lake Holiday spillway, with the particular exception of the uncertainties regarding the flow conditions in the downstream embayments and their effect on the performance of the weir. In addition, it was recognized that there would be scope for examining the performance of the baffle chute under the SDF. Having considered the possibility of undertaking a physical model test for the Lake Holiday labyrinth weir and spillway, it was decided that the issues were all amenable to CFD analyses and that this would allow a more effective and economic resolution of the matters requiring investigation in this case. In summary, the CFD analyses were planned to provide useful information for: fixing the downstream slab elevation, so that the resulting flow conditions in the downstream embayments of the labyrinth do not impair the discharge performance of the weir (or do so only to a degree that is acceptable); checking the flow conditions downstream of the labyrinth weir; confirming the design of the stilling basin upstream of the baffle chute; confirming the energy dissipation efficacy of the baffle chute; designing the sidewall heights, both alongside the labyrinth weir and further downstream, to contain the flow; and confirming the resulting stage-discharge rating for the weir.

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In addition, it may be noted that the bridge pier was included in the CFD model, so that it was not necessary to include a separate allowance for its effect. In all cases, only half of the weir was modeled, with a free slip boundary along the centerline. Labyrinth Weir Analyses The first task undertaken using CFD was to check the discharge characteristics of the labyrinth weir at the SDF and establish the required slab elevation downstream of the weir to avoid drowning it out. This subject had been examined earlier for a rather greater design outflow, the results of which are rendered non-dimensionally in Figure 7. The xaxis represents the ratio of the weir height on the downstream side of the weir (P2) to the weir height on the upstream side (P1); plotted on the y-axis is the ratio of the upstream head determined by CFD to the empirical value, from the Tullis et al (1995) treatment.
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Ratio of upstream head to empirical value

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Ratio of downstream to upstream weir height (P 2/P 1)

Figure 7. Effect of Downstream Slab Elevation It may be noted that, in this case, there is an increase in the upstream head, above the empirical value, throughout the range of downstream slab levels studied. Examination of the detailed visualizations of the CFD runs suggested that this is due to the high headloss in the narrow downstream embayments (with a small apex width and narrow labyrinth angle of 8), impeding flow coming over the upstream portion of the weir bay. As expected, the impairment increased as the downstream slab level was raised, reaching almost 10% when the weir is built on a common slab that forms the floors of the upstream and downstream embayments. From an examination of the results in Figure 7, it was decided to adopt a downstream slab level of 806 feet, giving P2 = 14ft and P2/P1 = 1.56. This could be expected to

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yield an upstream head at the design discharge between 5% and 6% greater than the empirical result, which would have been acceptable. Figure 8 shows the flow conditions at the centre of one of the downstream embayments of the labyrinth weir at the SDF peak outflow of 19,000 cfs, which suggests that the flow at the upstream end of the downstream embayment is not impairing the flow coming over the weir to any significant effect.

Figure 8. CFD Velocity Contours at Labyrinth Weir for 19,000cfs CFD was also used to investigate the sensitivity to other features of the labyrinth weir design. These runs showed that: there is a measureable performance benefit from providing a half round profile for the weir crest, rather than the quarter round profile that is generally favored in the literature; and increasing the inside widths of the upstream apexes of the weir from 2 feet to 4 feet would assist in reducing the potential drowning effect from the flow within the downstream embayments, but was more than compensated by the associated reduction in overall weir length, resulting in a net loss of discharge capacity or an increase in the head required to pass a given flow. Spillway Chute Analyses The model was then extended to include the baffle block spillway described previously. The CFD analyses showed that, with the baffle block design described above, velocities of about 30 fps could be expected at the downstream end of the spillway at the baffle chute design discharge of 11,700 cfs. In an effort to reduce the discharge velocities, larger baffle blocks were modeled, with a height of 7 feet. The block widths and spacings were adjusted in line with the EM25 guidance, except for the row spacing, which was retained at 20 feet. It was found that the larger blocks reduce the predicted velocities to about 25 fps at 11,700 cfs. In view of the low additional cost of the larger blocks and the useful benefit in terms of reduced velocities, they were therefore adopted for the design.

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Figure 9. Spillway Flow Conditions at 11,700 cfs (design discharge for baffle chute)

Figure 10. Spillway Flow Conditions at 19,000 cfs (SDF) Figures 9 and 10 demonstrate that the velocities across the spillway are relatively even after three rows of baffles, confirming that four sets of baffles blocks are sufficient. Although the blocks have been sized for 11,700 cfs, the results show that they are also

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large enough to prevent significant flow acceleration down the slope at the SDF. The figures also show that the 5 feet deep stilling basin designed ensures a hydraulic jump upstream of the baffle chute spillway, even at the SDF. Rating Curves For the final layout, the CFD analyses generally gave slightly higher energy elevations than the empirical results based on the work of Tullis et al (1995), with the divergence increasing at the higher heads, in an area where the empirical curve had implied an unexpected improvement in the hydraulic performance. In order to create the final rating curve, it was decided to adopt the slightly more conservative CFD rating points, where available, in preference to the empirical rating, forming a transition between the two datasets between upstream energy heads of 2.8 feet and 3.8 feet. For the final rating calculations, the headlosses associated with the approach channel to the labyrinth weir were evaluated, for weir heads of 3.8 feet and greater, by setting up a model using the Isis one-dimensional software package with an assumed Manning n value of 0.035. For lesser weir heads, the simpler formulation for the approach channel losses, as used in the preliminary rating (Figure 6), was adopted. The final stagedischarge relationship is shown in Figure 11. The flood surcharge at the peak SDF outflow of about 19,000 cfs is 7.56 feet, which is sufficiently close to the target value of 7.5 feet.

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Adjusted empirical weir rating CFD weir rating points Overall weir rating adopted Overall rating for reservoir outflow

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Figure 11. Adopted Ratings for Labyrinth Weir and Reservoir Outflow

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CONCLUSIONS The deployment of a labyrinth weir for upgrading the spillway at Lake Holiday allows a developed weir crest length of about 650 feet to be accommodated between abutments that are only 120 feet apart, limiting the flood surcharge in the SDF to close to the target value of 7.5ft. The adoption of this design solution means that the improvement works can be accommodated broadly within the footprint of the present approach channel and spillway. The efficacy of the labyrinth weir depends on the provision of a deep enough approach channel and a large enough spillway channel downstream of the weir. Analyses using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) were an effective method for addressing these and other hydraulic issues that would previously have been investigated through the use of physical model testing. REFERENCES Ackers, J.C. and Ashraf Akhtar, M. (2000) Hydraulic model studies for the GhaziBarotha hydropower project, Pakistan, Proceedings ICE, Water & Maritime Engineering, 142, Mar, 2943 Bos, M.G. (editor) (1989) Discharge measurement structures Publication 20, Third Revised Edition, International Institute for Land Reclamation and Improvement, Wageningen Falvey, H.T. (2003) Hydraulic design of labyrinth weirs ASCE Press, Reston Peterka, A.J. (1978) Hydraulic design of stilling basins and energy dissipaters Engineering Monograph N 25, revised printing, Bureau of Reclamation, Denver Tillis, J.P., Amanian, N. and Waldron, D. (1995) Design of labyrinth spillways ASCE Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, Vol 121, N 3, pp 247255 Virginia Acts of Assembly 2010 Session Chapter 249 An Act to amend and reenact 10.1-605 of the Code of Virginia, related to dam safety Woodward, D.E. (2010) Lake Holiday Probable maximum flood study Unpublished report

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