Reservoir sediment removal using VMHS: storage loss vs. environmental impact.

Balancing between sediment removal discharge and dam reservoir storage loss considering river environmental impact is of major and practical concern. The paper presents indices for evaluating the sediment removal performance of a Vertical Multi-hole Hydrosuction System (VMHS) in view of environmental impacts. A new hole arrangement on the vertical pipe of VMHS was experimentally examined. The compiled data of the temporal variations of the sediment concentration and the cumulative volume of removed sediment demonstrated that the arrangement of the holes on the vertical pipe of VMHS has profound impact on the speed of sediment removal and on the reservoir water loss. The high concentration of the outflow from the reservoir, however, might affect the downstream water course environment. The proposed indices could be applied to determine the proper duration for terminating the hydrosuction process in order to obtain a balance between the storage capacity and the downstream water course environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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