Abstract: In the past 40 years, the construction of water conservancy and hydropower projects in China has developed rapidly. A large number of world-class hydropower projects have been built, and a variety of innovative technologies have emerged, which has promoted the research on flood discharge and energy dissipation of the high head and large discharge flows in China to reach the global advanced level. This paper focuses on a review of the latest research achievements in flood discharge and energy dissipation of high head and large discharge in China, including full section aeration and erosion reduction technology, high arch dam flip bucket energy dissipation of air collision and non-collision nappes from surface and deep outlets, high gravity dam energy dissipation of multi-layer submerged jet bottom flows, stepped spillways, and internal flow energy dissipators of dovetail flip buckets, roll flip buckets, tunnel plugging, and swirl generators. A prospect of high dam hydraulics in the future is presented.

Key words: high dam engineering, discharge structure, flood discharge and energy dissipation, internal flow energy dissipation, aeration and erosion reduction