Numerical modelling on physical model of ringlet reservoir, Cameron Highland, Malaysia: how flow conditions affect the hydrodynamics

Abstract

The relative impacts of changes in the storage capacity of a reservoir are strongly influenced by its hydrodynamics. This study focused mainly on predicting the flow velocities and assessing the effectiveness of groynes as control mitigation structures in changes in the water depth and velocity distributions in Ringlet Reservoir. Initially, the physical model of the Habu River (the main part of Ringlet Reservoir) was fabricated, and flow velocities were measured. Then, a two-dimensional HEC-RAS was adapted to numerically simulate the hydrodynamics of the annual recurrence intervals of 1, 5, and 100 years in the Ringlet Reservoir. Experimental data acquired at the Hydraulic and Instrumentation Laboratory of the National Water Research Institute of Malaysia (NAHRIM) was used to calibrate and validate the numerical models. The comparison of simulation and experimental results revealed that the water levels in all simulations were consistent. As for the velocity, the results show a comparable trend but with a slight variation of results compared to the experiments due to a few restrictions found in both simulations. These simulation results are deemed significant in predicting future sediment transport control based on hydrodynamics in this reservoir and can be of future reference.