ABSTRACT
Sometimes, the process of rehabilitation and fitting of existing dams in order to comply with
new standards, requires the extension of spillways or the construction of new ones. In gravity dams the use of stepped spillways backed to the downstream face may represent a financially advantageous solution because it permits a reduction of the size of the stilling basin. This paper presents the conclusions obtained from tests carried out on a reduced model of stepped spillways with straight plan and with curved plan, to obtain design parameters for spillways and stilling basins for dams up to 50 m high, with variable flow rates and different step heights, as well as from cavitation analyses.
