Optimising a cascade of hydroelectric power stations with the WOLF package

in Brebbia, C. A. (Ed.) Water Ressources Management (2003)

Original free-surface flow solvers have been developed by the HACH during the last years. The resulting fully integrated WOLF package allows engineers to study a very wide range of free surface flows ... [more ▼]

Original free-surface flow solvers have been developed by the HACH during the last years. The resulting fully integrated WOLF package allows engineers to study a very wide range of free surface flows situations. Successful and accurate computations are performed for phenomena as various as hydrological run-offs and dam breaking in quasi 3 dimensions including solid transport effects, as well as rivers networks modelling with explicit exchanges between river paths. All the models, physically based, use efficient and original numerical methods to solve continuous or discontinuous free-surface flow equations. They handle structured or unstructured grids with both first and second order accurate explicit or implicit algorithms in time and space. WOLF also includes powerful user-friendly pre- and post-processing with 2D and 3D animated visualizations as well as a parameters optimization software interconnected with all the package components and based on the innovating method of genetic algorithms. In this paper, the production of the hydroelectric power plants installed on a 60 km long section of the rivers Amblève and Warche in Belgium is presented in details to illustrate the numerical calculation and optimization process. The river network is modeled using real natural topographic data. Hydrological balance is closed and roughness coefficients are calibrated from water level and discharge field measurements. Hydroelectric production is optimized by an automatic calibration of the parameters of the hydrogram injected in the network from the Robertville dam. This approach leads to a substantial gain in both hydroelectric production and financial benefits and deals with all management and security criteria. [less ▲]

Evaluation hydrodynamique d'un système de " balancelle " sous l'influence du vent

Report (2003)

Test et validation d'un modèle de prévision de crues et d'inondations sur les sous-bassins de la Meuse en Région wallonne

Report (2003)

Etude numérique des collecteurs d'évacuation du sable sous le desssableur de Kol Dam (Inde)

Report (2002)

Coupled computations of highly erosive flows with WOLF software

in Proc. 5th Int. Conference on Hydro-Science & -Engineering (ICHE) (2002)

Wolf software: a fully integrated device applied to modelling gradual dam failures and assessing subsequent risks

in Advances in Fluid Mechanics IV (2002)

Dam breaching is an important factor that should be included in an embankment break model. Indeed the assumption of instantaneous break is not suitable in case of earth dams, which fail gradually and thus ... [more ▼]

Dam breaching is an important factor that should be included in an embankment break model. Indeed the assumption of instantaneous break is not suitable in case of earth dams, which fail gradually and thus induce a delayed peak outflow, significantly reinforcing the flood wave front. Unlike computations performed classically, WOLF software package deals with the different phenomena (erosion processes, reservoir emptying and downstream wave propagation) in a completely integrated way. This finite volume computer code has been completely developed by the authors at the University of Liege. Transient discontinuities are properly handled thanks to an original splitting of the convective terms. The paper briefly presents WOLF software, which includes a physically based hydrological model, an original 1D flood routing (appropriate for any natural river network) and a 2D shallow-water solver. The latest hydrodynamic model is coupled to a mass balance for bed load sediments. Solid discharges are evaluated with reliable transport capacity laws. Gravity induced solid discharges are taken into account by means of side slope stability analysis. This paper also exhibits how WOLF software package has been successfully applied to the completely coupled computation of a gradual dam breaching process, with a focus on downstream effects on wave propagation. WOLF proves its ability to achieve the integrated computation of solid transport, flows upstream, through the breach, in the scour hole and in the whole downstream valley. Major feedback effects on the upstream part of the reservoir are shown and they demonstrate the relevance of such an integrated approach. [less ▲]

Impact studies and water management with WolfHydro : a new physically based hydrological solver

in International Symposium on Environmental Hydraulics (2001, December)

De l'utilité de la modélisation numérique en hydrodynamique de surface

in Ingenieurbiologie / Génie Biologique (2001), (4), 9-20

Experimental – Numerical Model Interaction : Example of a Large Dam Project in Laos

in Water Resources Management, Progress in Water Resources (2001)

Modélisations mathématiques et simulation des crues de la Chiers amont - Partim hydrodynamique

Report (2001)