Author(s): Gerardo Ruiz
Linked Author(s): Gerardo Ruiz
Keywords: Urban drainage Bifurcation tunnel Dropshaft Hydraulic model
Abstract: The little-regulated growth of the metropolitan area of Mexico and the increase in the intensity of rainfall makes urgent to expand and adapt the urban water infrastructure to make it able to evict increasingly larger volumes of water in short periods of time and thus avoid, or at least reduce, the floods in areas with high population density. The National Water Commission (CONAGUA) was builder the Eastern Drainage Tunnel (Tunel Emisor Oriente-TEO) – a circular tunnel of 7 m in diameter and 62 km in length with a maximum capacity of 160 m3/s-, which will greatly help to solve the problem of water accumulation in the part East of the metropolitan area. An important structure of this system is the shaft number 5 (S5), where is to install, connected to TEO by means of a bifurcation, two pumping stations with a total capacity of 40 m3/s. This paper presents a study on physical model, scale 1:29, in the shaft S5 of 20 m diameter, besides a small change of direction of the tunnel, is a connection of the TEO to a trash screen, two tunnels allow the flow to be pumped to a discharge canal by two pumping stations at the end of them. Since the discharges and depth of the water are very varied in the operation of the tunnel, it is necessary to perform model studies to find the adequacy of the structure in all these conditions, and thus contribute to the design of the final work. Finding that tested conditions never appreciated instabilities or oscillations important at the level of the water along tunnels. The runoff in the majority of cases was subcritical; except for the maximum discharge, in the entrance of the shaft.
Year: 2025