An Experimental Study of Different Stratified Water Intake Structures in a Deep-Water Reservoir

For water temperature stratified reservoirs, stratified water intake structures are used to extract surface warm water to reduce the adverse effects of low-temperature discharge on river habitats and agricultural irrigation. A physical simulation method has been explored and used to conduct the comparative experimental study on the efficiency of the three types of intake structures: a traditional stoplog gate intake, a stoplog gate with a horizontal curtain and a vertical curtain upstream of the intake. In order to extend the laboratory results to the prototype, a similarity relationship for water temperature stratification was derived based on the principle of equal density stratification Froude number between the model and the prototype, as well as the functional relationship between water density and temperature. The similarity relationship makes it possible to simulate the same prototype density flow under different laboratory water temperature conditions, and this was confirmed through experiments conducted in several months with different water temperatures. Under constant water flow conditions, a stable target water temperature distribution can be formed in the experimental model through continuous stratified heating and real-time power regulation, to simulate the density flow generated by various intake operation in water temperature stratified reservoir. The relationships between the intake water temperature and the reference water temperature at intake depth in reservoir were analyzed to distinguish the difference of water intake efficiency. The experimental results showed that, the traditional stoplog gate has a relatively lower efficiency in extracting warm water affected by the lower edge expansion of the drag layer into the cold water zone below the intake elevation; by setting horizontal curtain to prevent the cold water from climbing below, it is helpful to improve the water intake efficiency; by setting vertical curtain in the upstream area of the intake, the velocity of warm water in the upper part of the drag layer increases, and the intake efficiency has been significantly improved. The above research provides a scientific approach for mechanism research and mathematical model validation of thermal density flow.