Flow over embankment gabion weirs in free flow conditions

In this study, a series of laboratory tests were performed to investigate the effects of side ramp slope, crest length, and porous media properties on the flow regimes, water-surface profiles, discharge coefficients, and energy dissipation in embankment gabion weirs with upstream and downstream slopes. 24 physical models of solid and gabion weirs with three different upstream/downstream slopes (90°, 45° and 26.5°) were created. To investigate the complexity of flow over the porous-fluid interface and through the porous material, three-dimensional (3D) numerical simulations were developed. In numerical simulation, the standard k-ε turbulence model was utilized. A structured mesh domain was used to simulate the physical model. Water surface profiles above the porous weirs were used for comparison between the numerical simulations and measured data. These comparisons helped determine variables in the numerical simulations. Numerical simulation enables visualization of streamlines around and through the gabion weirs. In addition, mean stream wise velocity profiles above and within the porous structures were obtained. Numerical simulations showed that a reduction in the slope of the upstream face leads to an increased curvature of streamlines and the velocity distribution exhibits a non-uniform wavy shape due to the geometrical properties of the weirs. As the velocity profiles move downstream, the velocity distribution within the porous structures were more affected by the presence of the pores. The experimental results show that decreasing upstream slopes, from 90° to 26.5°, leads to decreased discharge coefficients. However, in all cases, gabion weirs lead to greater discharge coefficients than those of similar solid weirs. For milder side slopes, discharge ratios (flow passing through all faces of the gabion weirs over the inlet discharge) decreased nonlinearly. Moreover, with increasing the inlet discharge, relative energy dissipation was reduced up to 45% in gabion weirs.