Reclamation Information Sharing Environment (RISE)

The objective of the research was to develop and test a three-dimensional numerical model to simulate pressure flushing of sediment from reservoirs. A three-dimensional hydraulic and sediment transport model, U2RANS, has been developed through funding provided by Taiwan Water Resources Agency and has been applied to other sediment transport problems. The model was extended to simulate the case where the reservoir pool is nearly full, but dam outlet gates are opened to pressure flush sediments from the vicinity of the gates. We applied the 3D flow model U2RANS to observed pressure flushing cases at Cherry Creek Reservoir in Denver, Colorado. We compared the model results to pre- and post-flush surveys of the reservoir bottom near the outlet intake structure for Cherry Creek Dam and Reservoir, as well as the observed downstream sediment concentrations during the flushing operations.