Experimental Investigation of Artificial Aeration on a Smooth Spillway with a Crest Pier

Crest piers placed on overflow spillways induce standing waves at the downstream end of them and the supercritical flow expands after flowing past the rear of the pier. The expanding flow from each side of a pier will intersect and form disturbances or shock waves that travel laterally as they move downstream and eventually reach the chute sidewalls. Recently, investigations regarding crest piers are related with artificial aeration on stepped spillways to eliminate the risk of cavitation damage. However, there is a lack of studies on standing and shock waves in smooth spillways concerning the air entrainment into the flow in presence of crest piers. This paper presents the study of the combined effect on air entrainment of a crest pier and an aerator on the bottom of a smooth spillway (configuration 1). For comparison, experimental tests were developed in the spillway without pier, that is in presence of aerator only (configuration 2). The configuration 1 results show that the air concentration distribution on the spillway bottom across the width and length of the chute increases in comparison with configuration 2, reducing even more the risk of cavitation damage and enhancing the safety of the hydraulic structure