Abstract SYMPHOS 2011

downstream weir at the end of the pipes it includes the channel equipments (seawall channel, tidal barrier,
decantation basin, etc), the pumping station itself (stoplogs, bar screens, travelling filters, pumping chambers) as
well as the downstream circuit (collectors, valves, chimneys, weirs , etc).
Head losses are calculated allowing to define, in any running conditions concerning sea water levels, channel
clogging, actual pumped flow and filter losses, the water level at the pumping station entry and the conditions at
pumps outlet, allowing to define their running points. These calculations allow defining the best set of pumps that
will match with the new capacity objective.
On the other hand, an experimental study has been performed in order to define to what extent the pumping
station capacity could be increased with the following acceptable hydraulic conditions: no vortices, no swirls at
pump inlet, no entrained air in the pumps. For that purpose, a reduced scale pumping station model (at scale 1/10)
has been constructed and an experimental analysis of a large set of hydraulic conditions has been performed by the
mean of pressure and velocity measurements and of visualizations by photos or videos.
The paper presents both the numerical and physical works that have been performed during the study. The
experimental approach is more particularly developed based on the description of the methodology used in
such reduced scale physical model tests that are generally applied to pumping stations of large power, nuclear
or chemical plants : similarity laws, choice of scale, hydraulic criteria, required instrumentation. This approach is
presently the only reliable method ensuring that a pumping project would run as previously designed and in safe
conditions.
A picture of the reduced scale model is shown here after
A picture of the reduced scale model is shown here after
The Jorf Lasfar sea water main pumping station experimental model
in CERG laboratory
Views of the Jorf Lasfar pumping station
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