Experimental investigation of turbulent flow upstream of the broad-crested weir

Broad crested weirs (BCW) are widely used hydraulic structures in streams and irrigation canals to control the flow and to measure the discharge. In this study, turbulent flow structure at the upstream of the sharp edged broad crested weir is investigated by means of Acoustic Doppler Velocimetry (ADV) measurements at different stations. Vertical distributions of velocity and turbulence stresses revealed that, while fully developed velocity distributions are observed at stations far from the weir, turbulence effects significantly alter the flow structure as the flow approaches to the weir. High-resolution photographs are digitized to extract water surface profiles of the flow through the weir for different flow rates. Comparison of the experimental results with the theoretical results shows that the accuracy of the theoretical solutions decreases for low flow rates, in which boundary-layer effects are calculated based on the power law.