Performance of a right-triangle stilling basin: a laboratory investigation

One of the most used hydraulic structures for energy dissipation of supercritical flow is the hydraulic jump stilling basin. From dimensional analysis, the sequent flow depth ratio of a hydraulic jump over the right-triangle basin is derived as a function of the inflow Froude number and relative length of the basin front. The proposed structure stabilized the hydraulic jump at the toe of the chute spillway and hydraulic jump characteristics were investigated for the Froude number ranging from 4.4 < F-1 < 7. The results obtained from both numerical and experimental simulations yielded increased efficiency in the energy dissipation performance of this novel design. The modeling showed the formation of two large recirculation regions at the jump roller and jump bed at the beginning of the downstream channel, which resulted in intense energy dissipation in the right-triangle basin. The relative energy loss is approximately 37% higher for relative basin front lengths larger than three compared to the classic jump. Practitioners and academia on the usefulness of a right-triangle basin for hydraulic purposes and further experimental tests are needed to estimate the scalability and cost-benefit of this modified system for implementation.