Considering the limitations of unit discharge for stepped chutes, a ski-jump-step energy dissipater, which is a new type of energy dissipater, is first proposed for increasing the maximum available unit discharges. In this system, preaerations are achieved through jets generated by ski-jumps and further aerations are achieved via aeration basins. It provides fully aerated flows for the stepped chutes with large unit discharges, and the problems caused by high-speed flows like energy dissipation, cavitation, and atomization are well solved. Experimental investigations about hydraulic characteristics of the ski-jump-step energy dissipater were conducted, including the flow regimes, the principle and effectiveness of energy dissipation and the characteristics of the air entrainment and the pressure distribution. Even under conditions of large unit discharges (q=118.00 m2/s on the prototype), results obtained demonstrate energy dissipation as high as 75.8% and air concentrations of at least 3.6% alon...

Storm sewer systems may experience storm geysers, raising concerns about public safety. A thorough understanding of the influential factors of the geysers is essential yet insufficiently investigated in the literature. A transient three-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics model incorporating the volume of fluid method is used to investigate the geyser formation mechanism and hydrodynamics. An air pocket in a pressurized pipe travels with water past a vertical shaft, producing an air-releasing geyser and, subsequently, a rapid-filling geyser. If the air pocket in the pipe is too small or if it moves too quickly, a hybrid geyser might be set off when the air-releasing and rapid-filling geysers overlap. A hybrid geyser has unique properties since it combines an air-releasing geyser and a rapid-filling geyser. The presence of hybrid geysers lowers the height of air-releasing and rapid-filling geysers. Equations are proposed for predicting the heights of the geysers with errors of about 15%. The height of the air-releasing geyser increases with the water level in the shaft. As the pressure difference between the two ends of the pipe reduces, the height of the rapid-filling geyser increases. The vertical shaft diameter has little influence on rapid-filling geysers, while a small diameter often results in high air-releasing geysers. The effect on the height of both kinds of geysers is negligible when the air pocket volume is large enough. The findings can be used for designing storm geyser mitigation measures.

A storage tunnel system is the critical infrastructure of urban drainage systems, in which the rapid filling of water and release of trapped air can lead to the “geyser” phenomenon. This may cause serious damage, threatening both system operation and personal safety. In this paper, a detailed experimental study was carried out based on synchronous recorded video images and digital image processing technology. According to experimental observations, gas-flow geysers and surge-type geysers were analyzed deeply. The former is caused by high-speed gas flow and is accompanied by a pressure drop; the latter is caused by surge pressure and is accompanied by a pressure increase. The free surface velocity of the gas-flow geyser is mainly affected by the external pressure, the air volume, the diameter of the shaft, and the height of the water column, and the geyser phenomenon cannot occur when the air column is mainly dominated by buoyancy. Based on dimensional analysis and data fitting, this paper presents the empirical formula for the free surface velocity and the interface net velocity and puts forward the critical occurrence conditions for the gas-flow geyser.