Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2017) 132: 329
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2017-11608-4

Regular Article

Comparison between hydraulic and structural based anti-vortex methods at intakes

¹ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
³ Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar, Iran

^* e-mail: tshamsi@aut.ac.ir

Received: 12 April 2017
Accepted: 22 June 2017
Published online: 3 August 2017

Abstract

Surface vortices are the main reason of flow instability and entraining air and debris into the intakes. Using structural based anti-vortex facilities is a common method for dissipating vortices over the intakes. In the present experimental study, performance of a new hydraulic based anti-vortex method is compared with available structural based anti-vortex methods over the horizontal intakes. In the new approach dynamically high-risk surface vortices are eliminated by imposing a hydraulic jet at the formed vortex zone over the intake. The injected jet acts as a point source of external momentum in order to change the hydrodynamic condition of the formed vortex flow. Results show that the investigated hydraulic based anti-vortex device is more flexible and more hydraulically efficient than the structural based anti-vortex methods, especially when the intake Froude number is higher than 1.3.