Plunge pool rehabilitation with prismatic concrete elements - case study and physical model of Ilarion dam in Greece

The 130 m high Ilarion Dam is built on the Aliakmon River in northern Greece. The dam has two spillways with ski jumps at their ends and a plunge pool to cushion the impact of the jets. This pool has suered signicant scouring during several oods in recent years. In order to determine a reliable protection measure, a 1:55 scale model and a numerical model with FLOW-3D® were created. The hydrodynamic behaviour of the ow in the plunge pool and in the spillways as well as the trajectory of the jets could be determined. The numerical modelling showed that it was probably not the impact of the jet that caused the most of the scouring but the resulting recirculation current. The ow in the plunge pool is thus highly asymmetric and a vortex forms when only one of the two spillways is operating. This vortex results in an eective ow rate in the basin that is three times greater than the ow rate from the spillway. A simple solution to this problem is to operate both spillways symmetrically. A modication of the geometry of the ski jump bucket to increase the impact surface of the jet and thus reduce its scouring potential was also investigated.