CFD modeling and analysis of Makhool dam in Iraq: the hydraulic characteristics review

The use of computational fluid dynamic (CFD) technology for the hydraulic characteristics of dams improves the evaluation of the effectiveness of the dam. The objective of this study is to employ CFD software to predict the hydraulic characteristics of the spillway. The analysis of the simulation results shows the high level efficiency of the operating analysis of the dam. The study concerns the Makhool Dam in Iraq as a case study. In this paper, a comprehensive review of previous research related to the analysis of the Makhool Dam is presented, pointing out the gap in this literature as it did not address the simulation of the spillway despite its importance. Hence, this is the first study to simulate the Makhool Dam spillway using CFD technology, especially the FLOW 3D program. Where a three-dimensional hydraulic numerical model was developing for the Makhool Dam by using Flow-3D software, and the numerical results are validated by comparing them with the physical model results of the Makhool spillway to verify the simulation results. Then operate the model to evaluate its hydraulic properties.