experimental investigation of sediment accumulation reduction in reservoirs due to turbidity currents with channel insertion at the entrance

Turbidity current inside a model of a flat dam reservoir was experimentally evaluated. the dense fluid was prepared by mixing stone powder and water in a separate reservoir and then streamed into the main reservoir through a sliding gate. the reservoir floor at the entrance was deformed to conduct the dense flow in different channels. experiments were performed in three cases: (1) no channel, (2) using a parallel channel, and (3) using a convergent channel. the current head velocity and concentration of turbidity current were measured at different locations. results showed that creating a channel at the entrance of the reservoir increased the velocity and concentration of the turbidity current head. the effect of parallel channel was better than the convergent channel. results showed that using a parallel channel can increase the concentration near the end of flume up to 33.7%. when the parallel and convergent channels were used, the average concentration near the end of flume increased by 25.1% and 13.4%, respectively. also, at low flow rates, channel insertion was more effective in increasing the velocity and concentration of the current head.