E. Issa

Sedimentation and new operational curves for Mosul Dam, Iraq

Abstract Mosul Dam is one of the biggest hydraulic structures in Iraq. Its storage capacity is 11.11 × 109 m3 at a maximum operation level of 330 m a.s.l. The dam became operational in 1986 and no survey has been conducted to determine its storage capacity and establish new operational curves since this date. A topographic map of scale 1:50 000 dated 1983 was converted into triangulated irregular network (TIN) format using the ArcGIS program to evaluate the operational curves. Then the reservoir was surveyed in 2011 to establish the reduction in its storage capacity and to develop new operational curves. The results indicated that the reduction in the storage capacity of the reservoir was 14.73%. This implies that the rate of sedimentation within the reservoir was 45.72 × 106 m3 year−1. These results indicate that most of the sediment was deposited within the upper zone of the reservoir where the River Tigris enters the reservoir. Editor D. Koutsoyiannis Citation Issa, E.I., Al-Ansari, N., and Knutsson, S., 2013. Sedimentation and new operational curves for Mosul Dam, Iraq. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 58 (7), 1456–1466.

Experimental Analysis of Sediment Deposition Due to the Effect of an Upstream Reservoir Backwater

The phenomenon of aggradation due to sediment accumulation upstream reservoirs had been studied in this research. For this purpose, groups of experiments were conducted in a laboratory with 25 m long, 0.80 m wide and 0.70 m deep channel. A block was built at the end of the channel to work as a dam to impound water. The channel was supplied with drainage pipes on both sides to release water out in a manner similar to what happens in reservoirs. The bed of the channel was filled with sand of 0.80 mm median sieve diameter and 0.72 geometric standard deviation. The slope was 0.0093 for all experiments. Two sizes of sand were used representing the sediment. The median diameter and geometric standard deviation of the first were 0.365 mm and 0.46 mm, respectively. The second sample had 0.65 mm median diameter and 0.67 standard deviation. A total of 70 experiments were conducted in two groups to examine effects of sediment transport rate, particle size of sediment and flow velocity on aggradation characteristics. The results showed that there was a strong linear direct relationship between aggradation elements (length and depth) with the rate of sediment transport. Groups of dimensionless parameters affecting the aggradation characteristics were used to develop empirical equations to predict the length, maximum depth of aggradation and predict transient bed profile. The results of empirical approach were compared with the measurement data and previous numerical method. The results indicated that the percentage error was 19% to 31% for length of aggradation and -21% to 26% for maximum depth of aggradation. The results also showed that the sediment materials were deposited closer to the body of the dam when the released water from the dam is higher than the inflow.