PRESSURES AND VELOCITIES IN A DAM PLUNGE POOL USING OPENFOAM

The description of the flow in plunge pool stilling basins is complex and the flow patterns has great interest to better access the behaviour of the flow within these hydraulic structures and improve their design. Foz Tua arch dam, owned by EDP – Gestão da Produção de Energia, S.A., has been recently constructed in the Tua river, a right bank tributary of Douro river, in Portugal. It incorporates a spillway in the central part of the dam with four separate spans controlled by gates designed for flood of 5500 m3/s and the check flood is 6500 m3/s and a plunge poll downstream of the 108 m high arch dam where a combined acquisition system of pressure and velocity was installed in the bottom. The purpose of this article is to present preliminary OpenFOAM simulations in the stilling basin to preview measurements of hydrodynamic pressures and flow velocities close to the bottom of the Foz Tua’s plunge pool; and a carefully study of the mesh refinement in the area of impingement general characteristics of the Foz Tua dam.