Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2018) 133: 143
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2018-11968-1

Regular Article

A new approach on anti-vortex devices at water intakes including a submerged water jet

¹ Department of Civil Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Tehran, Iran
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Tehran, Iran
³ Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar, Iran

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

Received: 9 October 2017
Accepted: 3 March 2018
Published online: 12 April 2018

Abstract

A new approach on anti-vortex methods as hydraulic-based anti-vortex was investigated experimentally in the present study. In the investigated method, a submerged water jet is used as the anti-vortex mechanism. The added jet acts as a source of external momentum. This leads to change the intake-induced hydrodynamic pattern in the near-field of the intake structure, which can prevent formation of undesirable intake vortices. The experiments were carried out on a horizontal pipe intake. By performing 570 test cases in two different categories, including the inclined jet with respect to the axis of the intake, and the inclined jet with respect to the water surface, the effects of the jet inclination angle on the anti-vortex performance were investigated. It was found that the inclined jet with respect to the water surface is the best alternative to consider as the water jet injection pattern. Results showed that using the inclined jet with respect to the water surface can simply reduce the amounts of the expected water jet momentum more than 50% compared to that of the similar condition of the horizontal injection pattern. Moreover, it was concluded that the intake critical submergence can easily be minimized using the inclined jet with respect to the water surface.