Physical Model-Based Investigation of Reservoir Sedimentation Processes

Sedimentation is a serious problem in the operations of reservoirs. In Taiwan, the situation became worse after the Chi-Chi Earthquake recorded on 21 September 1999. The sediment trap efficiency in several regional reservoirs has been sharply increased, adversely affecting the operations on water supplies. According to the field record, the average annual sediment deposition observed in several regional reservoirs in Taiwan has been increased. For instance, the typhoon event recorded in 2008 at the Wushe Reservoir, Taiwan, produced a 3 m sediment deposit upstream of the dam. The remaining storage capacity in the Wushe Reservoir was reduced to 35.9% or a volume of 53.79 million m3 for flood water detention in 2010. It is urgent that research should be conducted to understand the sediment movement in the Wushe Reservoir. In this study, a scale physical model was built to reproduce the flood flow through the reservoir, investigate the long-term depositional pattern, and evaluate sediment trap efficiency. This allows us to estimate the residual life of the reservoir by proposing a modification of Brune’s method. It can be presented to predict the lifespan of Taiwan reservoirs due to higher applicability in both the physical model and the observed data.