Aeration performance of high-head siphon-shaft spillways by CFD models

Siphon-shaft spillways are constituted by covering above a shaft spillway with a hood that creates siphonic pressure. This study focused on the aeration the flow through the aerator holes placed on the hood to prevent cavitational damage in high-head siphon-shaft spillways. Three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique using finite-volume method to solve Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations for the incompressible viscous and turbulent fluids motion was performed to analyze the full-scaled two-phase numerical models. The volume of fluid (VOF) scheme was used to simulate two-phase (water-air) flow, by defining the volume fraction for each of the fluids throughout the solution domain. The accuracy of the numerical model was tested using a procedure recommended by American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) for CFD applications. The numerical results showed that the aeration is highly effective in reducing siphon sub-pressures and cavitation. The optimal relative aeration diameter of 0.45 provided sufficient air entrainment to protect from cavitation and did not decrease the discharge performance too much.