Local scour protection using geocell for downstream of spillway

Abstract

Local scour is an important problem for hydraulic structures. The local scour in the downstream of dams causes problems such as the damage of the dam body stabilization, erosion of the slopes, and the submergence of the turbines. There are many studies investigating the local scour prediction of the downstream of the hydraulic structures, but in recent years, these studies have been replaced by studies of local scour reduction. The new idea of confining the bed materials using the geocell is becoming a popular solution. This solution can be especially used for the reinforcement of the soils. In this study, the preventability of the local scour downstream of chute channel by cellular confinement system, also known as geocell, was investigated. As a result, in case of using geocell, percentage reduction of the maximum scour depth up to 40.63% was observed.