Numerical simulation of air-water two-phase flow over stepped spillways

Stepped spillways for significant energy dissipation along the chute have gained interest and popularity among researchers and dam engineers. Due to the complexity of air-water two-phase flow over stepped spillways, the finite volume computational fluid dynamics module of the FLUENT software was used to simulate the main characteristics of the flow. Adopting the RNG k-epsilon turbulence model, the mixture flow model for air-water two-phase flow was used to simulate the flow field over stepped spillway with the PISO arithmetic technique. The numerical result successfully reproduced the complex flow over a stepped spillway of an experiment case, including the interaction between entrained air bubbles and cavity recirculation in the skimming flow regime, velocity distribution and the pressure profiles on the step surface as well. The result is helpful for understanding the detailed information about energy dissipation over stepped spillways.