Educational interactive hydraulic and geometric design of a spillway using labview and geometrical modeling

Based on theories of geometrical modeling, an educational interactive LabVIEW program is designed to enable hydraulic engineers to design 2D and 3D hydraulic structures like spillways and energy dissipater basins. The parametric definitions of curves and surfaces in geometrical modelling are based on matrices which are found to be useful when used for the geometrical design of hydraulic structures. The LabVIEW matrices, through the use of the build array functions, the build matrix functions, and the 3D parametric surface functions are used for achieving the purpose of designing this software. The LabVIEW matrices enable the designer to change the hydraulic design parameters very easily and quickly to obtain more reliable and more accurate 2D and 3D designs. With LabVIEW it is not required to write a program instead a block diagram is necessary to be designed for achieving a certain required engineering task which is much simpler than writing a program especially when the task is complicated. When used for class room demonstration, the environment of the program and its visual artifacts enabled the students to enhance their understandings regarding the design of spillway and energy dissipater structures. This research paper spots the light on the major parts of this interactive software for the hydraulic designs of spillways and energy dissipation basins.