Advances in the understanding of the hydraulic behavior of wedge-shape block spillways

Abstract

The technology of wedge shaped blocks (WSB) for spillways has had a rising development through the last forty years, and has proved its reliability for practical applications with spillways executed during the last decade. Ongoing additional research aims to complete the understanding of the hydraulic behavior, improve current design criteria and make this technology available to practitioners, in order to consider this type of spillway together with the conventional alternatives when designing an embankment dam spillway. A summary is here shown of recent research performed by the consortium formed by the research organizations: Research Group in Dam Safety (SERPA) of the Technical University of Madrid (UPM) and the International Center for Numerical Methods in Engineering (CIMNE) and the company PREHORQUISA. Even though the experimental campaign has not been completed, some preliminary conclusions can be addressed about the developed pressures along the block tread and the leakage flow from the joints among blocks and the drainage holes.