Computational Modeling of Fine Sediment Relocation Within a Dam Reservoir by Means of Artificial Flood Generation in a Reservoir Cascade

Abstract

Sediment relocation is a process where water turbulence moves deposits from shallower to deeper zones of a lake or reservoir. Additionally, in the context of a reservoir cascade relocation is a one of the possible sediment management strategies used to maintain the operational capacity of reservoirs. Numerical modeling tools applied to sediment dynamics can help to better understand the reservoir sedimentary processes and enhance the design of management strategies. This paper describes the detailed analysis of the cohesive sediment dynamics within a reservoir and a methodology for the calibration of numerical models for the management of sediment deposits through dam operation and upstream generation of artificial floods. The calibration process was based on an accumulated sediment volume curve and the usage of simplified models for an initial parameter estimation. The calibrated model has been applied to analyze different possibilities of sediment relocation strategies.

Optimización del cálculo de la Vía de Intenso Desagüe con criterios hidráulicos

“…Para ello emplea el método de volúmenes finitos (Toro, 2009), discretizando el espacio en una malla de elementos triangulares y/o cuadriláteros. Actualmente Iber dispone de 5 módulos de cálculo: transporte de sedimentos (Bladé et al, 2019a); dispersión de contaminantes (Anta Álvarez et al, 2015;Cea et al, 2016); procesos hidrológicos (Cea y Bladé, 2015); y hábitat fluvial (Sanz-Ramos et al, 2019a), siendo el módulo hidráulico común para todos ellos y la base para estudios de inundabilidad (Bladé et al, 2014b(Bladé et al, , 2014a(Bladé et al, , 2019bGonzález-Aguirre et al, 2016;Ruiz-Villanueva et al, 2014;Sopelana et al, 2017), y que son parte de los trabajos de planificación del espacio fluvial en los que se enmarca la definición de la VID.…”

Elements for the Successful Computer Simulation of Sediment Management Strategies for Reservoirs

“…The influence of lowering the reservoir and increasing discharge from upstream on the relocation of fine sediments was addressed using the Iber code by Castellet et al [48]. Chen and Tsai [10] applied PSED for computing sediment flushing efficiency.…”

An Augmented Reality Facility to Run Hybrid Physical-Numerical Flood Models

“…An additional advantage of using Iber is that, although the model was originally developed for hydraulic computations of river flow, in recent years its range of applications has been expanded to the simulation of hydrological processes [33], water quality in rivers [34,35], urban drainage [36,37], soil erosion and sediment transport [38][39][40], fish habitat in rivers [41,42] and wood transport in rivers [43]. Thus, although the present version of MEDUSA-6 is only intended to simulate river flow, future versions could incorporate the ability to deal with hydrological simulations at the catchment scale and water quality simulations in rivers.…”