Author(s): J. D. Abad; Y. A. Catano-Lopera; E. Viparelli; M. H. Garcia
Linked Author(s): Giovanni Catano, Marcelo García
Keywords: No Keywords
Abstract: The Tunnel and Reservoir Plan (TARP) in Chicago, Illinois, has been under construction since the early 1970's at a cost of three billion dollars to control combined-sewer overflows and with the goal of preventing the pollution of the Chicago waterways and, more importantly, the contamination with sewage of Lake Michigan-the main source of water supply for the city of Chicago and its suburbs. The TARP project includes many hydraulic structures such as tunnels, inlets, sluice gates, tide gates, dropshafts among others. The discharge characteristics of many of these structures are quite complex and their behavior cannot be simply described by standard tables of discharge coefficients for standard structures. In particular, the dropshafts (DS) were designed as un-gated structures and sluice gates were added later on to prevent hydraulic transients. The discharge characteristics of hydraulic structures such as dropshafts control the inflow to the tunnels, yet the behavior of these structures has never been examined. The main purpose of this study was to describe the three-dimensional (3D) flow structure in dropshafts and to determine their hydraulic (conveyance) capacity. The dropshaft described in the case study presented herein connects one of the interceptors draining to the Racine Pumping Station (RAPS) and the underground tunnel system.
Year: 2009