Model Study Of Marmet Lock Filling And Emptying System Kanawha River West Virginia

This report documents the laboratory model investigation of the lock filling and emptying system for lock addition planned for the Marmet Navigation Project. This project is located on the Kanawha River in the U.S. Army Engineer District, Huntington. The filling and emptying system consists of an innovative through-the-sill intake and in-chamber longitudinal culverts. This system is less expensive than the conventional side port filling and emptying system. The model results revealed that the flow conditions in the upper approach during filling operations could be improved by lowering the upstream maintenance sill and streamlining the approach to the intakes. The original design filling and emptying system was found to perform satisfactorily for the design lift of 7.315 m (24 ft) and a 4-min valve operation. No excessive surface turbulence occurred in the chamber, and the maximum hawser forces experienced by a three- by four-barge arrangement moored inside the chamber were considered acceptable. No changes were made to the discharge outlet design.