Spillway gates

In experiments of spillways regulated by floodgates, it is usual to obtain the flow rate curve associated to this spillway. This process is analysed both in free surface condition and in different floodgate opening positions. Also it is very interesting to study the pressures over the upper spillway face in this kind of models. The goal of our research (Rebollo et al., 2010) was to detect the appearance of negative pressures in water spills above the gate.

Along with the experiments, this study was also carried out with Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) model which showed very similar results to those of experiments. For this reason, SPH can be considered as a useful and precise tool to complement and reduce the physical model costs.