50 Years of Experience in Physical Hydraulic Models

This paper presents a review of the experience in physical hydraulic models that were developed as part of the design process of several hydraulic structures that were part of hydroelectric and water supply projects.

The review starts with the hydraulic model of the spillway for the Chivor hydroelectric Project, with a maximum hydraulic capacity of 8800 m3/s, developed at the Federal Technical Institute of Zurich in 1971. The review rounds up with the hydraulic model of the radial gates of the discharge structure for the Tornillito Hydroelectric Project presently under construction in Central America, which will handle river floods of up to 25.000 m3/s.

Most of the models analyzed were of the movable bed type, that allow to consider ascour and deposition processes, but a few had a fixed bed and velocity fields that used water stream direction to determine the magnitude of the erosion phenomena.

The models include very large hydraulic models such as the model of the Tablacha Reservoir of the Mantaro Hydroelectric Project in Perú, with a scale of 1:25 and a length of modeling of 120, and the Hydraulic model of the BEC Spillway for the Panama Canal System which delivered to the Atlantic Ocean a water discharge of 4321 m3/s coming from Gatun Lake, built in a scale of 1:40.

In the more recent models, an interaction between the numerical models and physical models was used, and proved to be very useful in the design process. The numerical model showed areas which required special attention and thats were analyzed more closely with the physical model, and in turn, the numerical model was calibrated with the results of the physical model.