Effect of High Flow on Local Scour on Energy Dissipation System

The design of hydraulic structures deals with the flow of water and its effects on the built and natural environment, The construction of various water structures causes scour downstream due to the erosive action of water flowing ever or through these hydraulic structures, Energy dissipating structures are the common engineering solutions applied to a water system to reduce environmental impact like local scour. The baffle blocks, for instance, are normally provided at the downstream section of high velocity flow (supercritical) simply to convert it to low velocity flow (subcritical). This paper illustrates the experimental investigation of local scour caused by high flow near an energy dissipation system. The system comprises several energy dissipation components such as the baffle block, chute block, steps and concrete apron. The hydraulic characteristics of flows surrounding the system were critically studied. The flow was studied under high flows (30 L/s). The effectiveness of the system was measured based on the percentage loss of energy captured by each energy dissipation component. The results show that the applied energy dissipation system sufficiently controls the local scour.