Journal of Hydroelectric Engineering

水力发电学报

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2025 Vol. 44, No. 4 Published: 2025-04-25

	1	Dispersibility evaluation and dispersive mechanism analysis of low-clay-content loess ^Hot!
		ZHANG Gang, LIU Xinze, MA Wenguo, ISRAR Jahanzaib
		DOI: 10.11660/slfdxb.20250401
		Clay content is a key factor in evaluating soil dispersibility, but few previous studies are found in literature of the dispersive mechanism of low clay content loess. This study evaluates the dispersibility of such soil－collected from Guyuan, Ningxia－using five commonly used methods and a comprehensive evaluation method. We examine the factors of soil dispersibility and its mechanism through mineral composition, microscopic morphology, and chemical analysis. The results indicate that the comprehensive evaluation of different methods reveal this low-clay-content loess as a dispersive soil. The exchangeable sodium percentage of this soil is quite low, implying its dispersion mainly results from the physical factors instead of chemical factors. The bonding effect of aggregates cemented by clay particles and the aggregate structures agglomerated by aggregates are both weak due to low clay contents. Therefore, we develop a physical dispersive mechanism for low clay content loess: under the action of water, non-water-stable aggregates formed by the cementation of clay particles quickly disintegrate, leading to an increase in soil pores or certain changes in pore structure, i.e., erosion and similar phenomena.
		2025 Vol. 44 (4): 1-11 [Abstract] ( 49 ) PDF (4187 KB) ( 113 )

	12	Thermal properties test and influencing factors of hydraulic asphalt mastic
		ZHU Yue, ZHANG Youcai, HUANG Changsheng, ZHANG Yingbo, JIANG Rengui
		DOI: 10.11660/slfdxb.20250402
		The thermal properties of asphalt concrete panel materials for hydraulic structures are important factors affecting the temperature field of the panel that has a sealing layer of asphalt mastic as its outermost coating. To develop a temperature field model, it is necessary to obtain the parameters of the properties accurately. This paper presents an experimental study of the thermal properties of the impervious layer, leveling layer asphalt concrete, and cushion layer concrete, using the transient plane source method and a DRE-III multifunctional rapid thermal conductivity tester. We focus on analysis of the asphalt mastic layer, involving its thermal conductivity, thermal diffusion coefficient, and specific heat capacity, under different asphalt types, different oil to powder ratios, and different aging degrees. Then we discuss the mechanism of different influencing factors on these three thermal parameters. The results show significant differences occur in the three parameters among different types of asphalt-made mastics; Thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity are correlated negatively with the oil to powder ratio, while specific heat capacity is correlated positively; Aging has relatively small influence on these properties, causing a change of less than 5% in all the parameters.
		2025 Vol. 44 (4): 12-20 [Abstract] ( 37 ) PDF (3231 KB) ( 106 )

	21	Study on interfacial adhesion between asphalt and recycled aggregate at different temperatures
		DONG Jing, TAO Shengjie, LIU Yunhe, WANG Ying, NING Zhiyuan
		DOI: 10.11660/slfdxb.20250403
		Adhesion between asphalt and recycled aggregate is studied by conducting tensile tests of their macroscopic interface and a theoretical analysis allowing for the microscopic surface energy theory. We measure the microscopic contact angle of the two materials at room temperature, using four combinations of probe liquids, and select the optimal combination. Then we conduct macroscopic tensile tests on the specimens at the temperatures of 5 °C, 10 °C, 15 °C and 20 °C, respectively for asphalt Karamay 70, asphalt Karamay 90, and Shandong modified asphalt. The results show that microscopically, through correlation coefficient analysis, the most suitable probe solution combination can be selected for analysis, and surface energy and adhesion work between different asphalt types and recycled aggregate are obtained, which is able to reflect their interfacial adhesion. Macroscopically, the tensile force between asphalt and recycled aggregate gradually decreases with rising temperature, following an inversely proportional relationship. The asphalt-aggregate adhesion changes with the change in the asphalt type, taking the largest value with asphalt Karamay 90, which is also being verified by the microscopic test.
		2025 Vol. 44 (4): 21-30 [Abstract] ( 38 ) PDF (1594 KB) ( 60 )

	31	Study on valley deformation characteristics of Baihetan Reservoir based on adaptive multi-function method
		LI Mingxi, SHI Hongjuan, XU Jianrong, LIU Yuanze, XU Weiya
		DOI: 10.11660/slfdxb.20250404
		To achieve a deep understanding of the valley deformation in a high arch dam region, it is essential to conduct a quantitative analysis of the deformation characteristics. This paper describes a multi-function adaptive analysis method for this purpose, based on long-term in-situ monitoring data from the Baihetan high arch dam on the Jinsha River. This method involves preprocessing the data and decomposing them through variational mode decomposition, followed by the selection of its modal signals via fast Fourier transform. It determines the range of peak count values using a prominence factor derived from the quantile method, and performs data fittings with three types of base functions truncated to different numbers of terms. Then, by using an explicit expression formulated for valley deformation, we derive explicit models for its velocity and acceleration. In a case study of the Baihetan Reservoir, typical monitoring data are used to demonstrate the analysis of valley deformation characteristics. The results have verified that our method achieves explicit solutions for the time series of valley deformation and its velocity and acceleration, enhancing the reliability and practical applicability of the analysis results. The findings, grounded with the Baihetan in-situ measurements, have theoretical and practical significance for the development of high arch dams.
		2025 Vol. 44 (4): 31-41 [Abstract] ( 36 ) PDF (1831 KB) ( 74 )

	42	Auxiliary correction methods for categories of potential safety hazards in hydropower project construction
		LU Bing, CHEN Shu, CAO Kunyu, CHEN Yun, NIE Benwu
		DOI: 10.11660/slfdxb.20250405
		To enhance the investigation and management of potential hazards in hydropower construction, workers can use mobile reporting to announce safety hazards promptly. However, hazard classification and its accuracy are often subjective, and manual correction is time-consuming and labor-intensive. To mitigate confusion in hazard management during construction, this paper describes a NRBO-CNN-BiLSTM method for auxiliary correction of the mobile phone-reported hazard categories. First, safety hazard data are tokenized, preprocessed, and converted into word vectors, followed by normalization. Then, we apply an attention mechanism to enhance the feature representation capability, and construct a safety hazard classification model using convolutional neural networks and bidirectional long-short-term memory networks. Finally, we work out a Newton-Raphson optimization algorithm to train the model for optimal parameters selection. Case studies demonstrate the probability is 69.2% for the classification of 18 types of hazards. The main reason lies in a relatively low frequency of certain hidden danger categories. In the tests of 6 hazard categories with balanced datasets, our new model achieves a classification probability of 94.6%, a recall value of 94.6%, and an F1 score of 94.6%. The accuracies of these indexes are superior to those of alternative classification models, indicating this correction model is effective and better.
		2025 Vol. 44 (4): 42-49 [Abstract] ( 29 ) PDF (1468 KB) ( 157 )

	50	Experimental study on joint types and seismic performance of prestressed precast piers
		CAI Xiaoning, WEN Yongxin, LI Qingbin, ZHOU Liang, GONG Nina, YANG Jiale, LIU Guangkun
		DOI: 10.11660/slfdxb.20250406
		Prestressed precast segmental piers have the advantages of fast construction and good mechanical performance. The joint types between segments and between segments and foundation have great influence on the seismic performance of the structure. This paper presents an experimental study on a new type of joints that we have designed for prestressed precast segment piers, focusing on the structure’s seismic performance and the influence of design parameters. The results show that the connecting steel plates installed at the segment joints are very effective in preventing the joint from cracking under lateral load and ensuring the integrity of the pier column, while the energy dissipators with a negative Poisson's ratio installed at the segment-foundation joints are effective in enhancing energy consumption and the structure’s bearing capacity. These findings are useful for engineering design of pier structures.
		2025 Vol. 44 (4): 50-58 [Abstract] ( 29 ) PDF (2111 KB) ( 47 )

	59	Multi-objective optimization method for tunnel support schemes driven by surrogate models
		DENG Zi'ang, ZHANG Jixun, ZHANG Yuxian, SUN Yanpeng
		DOI: 10.11660/slfdxb.20250407
		To overcome the shortcomings of traditional numerical simulation methods in optimizing tunnel support schemes, this paper presents a new multi-objective optimization method based on surrogate models and NSGA-III, to balance the schemes’ safety and economy under various geological conditions and to improve the computational efficiency of the traditional methods. First, we construct a categorical feature gradient boosting (CatBoost) surrogate model that is equipped with the support parameters of surrounding rock and its mechanical parameters as input parameters, and its deformation and plastic zones depth as output parameters. A nonlinear mapping relationship between these input and output parameters is worked out. We optimize the hyperparameters of CatBoost using the dung beetle optimizer (DBO) thereby achieving efficient prediction of tunnel surrounding rock stability, and evaluate the contribution of these parameters using the Shapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) model. Then, a multi-objective optimization model for the support schemes is constructed with tunnel safety and support cost as objective functions, the support parameters as design variables, and the ranges of support parameter values as constraints, so that the surrogate model is combined with the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm III (NSGA-III) to solve the multi-objective optimization problem of support schemes. Finally, this method is applied in real project cases. The results indicate that compared with the original scheme for surrounding rocks Class III and Class IV, the optimized support schemes reduce tunnel vault deformation by 1.23% and 9.78% respectively, decrease the depth of plastic zones by 8.98% and 10.53% respectively, and lower support cost by 17.39% and 4.94% respectively, which are all verified by the on-site monitoring results. Our new method is more efficient and intelligent than traditional support optimization methods, and helps design better tunnel support schemes.
		2025 Vol. 44 (4): 59-71 [Abstract] ( 33 ) PDF (3179 KB) ( 143 )

	72	Seismic response analysis of high arch dam system with coupled SBFEM-FEM
		CHEN Denghong, LIANG Yuxiang, LIU Yunhui, ZHANG Xinhan, HU Haowen
		DOI: 10.11660/slfdxb.20250408
		For a high arch dam, the traditional finite element method exhibits certain limitations in fine modeling, because of its large dam span and other huge dimensions, diversified material properties in different zones of its body, and the complexity of its foundation topography. This paper describes a brand-new integrated analysis process of a high arch dam-foundation-reservoir system, and develops a seismic analysis numerical model by the coupled SBFEM-FEM. This model is based on the scaled boundary finite element method (SBFEM), and uses the overlaying element technique to integrate an octree SBFEM and the ABAQUS built-in elements. It combines the advantages of SBFEM semi-analyticity and mesh flexibility with the mature linear and nonlinear solvers and pre- and post-processing modules of ABAQUS. It is applied in a case study of the elastic, contact nonlinear and material nonlinear dynamic response of the XL high arch dam under seismic action. The results show that compared with the traditional finite element method, our new method reduces the model-required calculation resources effectively, and has a high accuracy in simulating the nonlinear response and damage of the dam under earthquakes, thus useful for the seismic analysis of water dams and similar structures.
		2025 Vol. 44 (4): 72-84 [Abstract] ( 42 ) PDF (7197 KB) ( 38 )

	85	Multisite multivariate weather generator: stochastic simulations of daily precipitation and air temperature
		LI Xin, LIU Ling, ZHOU Yibin, CHEN Yuanfang
		DOI: 10.11660/slfdxb.20250409
		Developing a stochastic hydrometeorological field with spatiotemporal correlations and a clear physical coherence is critical for hydrological simulations. This study uses a coupled model of multivariate first-order autoregressive (MAR1) model, a first-order Markov chain, and a K-nearest neighbors (KNN) to develop a multisite, multivariate weather generator that can reflect spatiotemporal dependencies, inter-variable correlations, and low-frequency interannual oscillations inherent in hydrometeorological processes. We have applied this generator to the random simulations of daily precipitation and maximum and minimum air temperatures across 12 secondary water resource divisions in the Yangtze River basin, and achieved physically meaningful meteorological fields that are characterized by temporal and spatial correlations. The model is evaluated comprehensively using several metrics, such as basic statistical characteristics, correlation features, and interannual variability. The results demonstrate the multisite, multivariate weather generator effectively reconstructs a range of characteristic indicators of the observed meteorological fields. However, it does show certain underestimated durations of the maximum drought and wet periods at a few gauge stations, and similar errors in the first-order autocorrelation coefficients for daily maximum and minimum air temperatures. The findings of this study provide valuable insights for distributed stochastic hydrological simulations.
		2025 Vol. 44 (4): 85-96 [Abstract] ( 37 ) PDF (2876 KB) ( 56 )

	97	Application of Kolmogorov–Arnold networks to water level forecasting in middle and lower Yangtze River
		CHEN Siyu, LI Xiaonan, HUA Xu, LU Jun, JING Pingfei, SONG Zhihao
		DOI: 10.11660/slfdxb.20250410
		A data-driven water level forecasting method is constructed using Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks (KAN), which decomposes the complex relationships among hydrological variables into a linear combination of univariate functions, enabling accurate capture of the trends in hydrological data. The method has been applied to water level forecasting based on discharge and water level data from the Lianhuatang and Shashi stations in the middle and lower Yangtze River. Results show the KAN model has a seven-day mean absolute error of 0.187 m at Lianhuatang and 0.109 m at Shashi. In the case of Lianhuatang, it improves forecasting accuracy by 20.1%, 45.0%, 16.5%, and 13.0% compared to traditional Multi-Layer Perceptron, Long Short-Term Memory network, Gated Recurrent Unit network, and Transformer models, respectively. To deepen our understanding of this model further, sensitivity analysis and simplification tests are conducted. Results indicate its short-term upstream discharge forecasting significantly affects the predicted downstream water levels. Equipped with a minimal number of parameters, it achieves effectively the relationship between upstream discharge and downstream water level changes, demonstrating remarkable interpretability.
		2025 Vol. 44 (4): 97-107 [Abstract] ( 28 ) PDF (1490 KB) ( 127 )

	108	Bibliometric analysis and runoff evolution patterns in Yarlung Zangbo River basin
		TANG Junlong, XU Peng, WENG Baisha
		DOI: 10.11660/slfdxb.20250411
		The Yarlung Zangbo River is one of the highest altitude rivers in the world; its runoff changes are crucial to regional ecosystem, environment, and water security. This study aims to reveal the hotspots and trends in the research of this river basin and explores its runoff evolution patterns through bibliometric analysis. We examine 2,365 English papers and 939 Chinese journal papers based on data from the Web of Science Core Collection and the Peking University Core database, combined with analysis tools such as CiteSpace and the bibliometrix package in R. The analysis highlights the key research areas－such as climate change, ecological environment, and hydrological process－and identifies India, China, and the United States as the primary contributors in this field. Using the Mann-Kendall and Yamamoto methods, we examine abrupt changes in the runoff data across different sub-basins, revealing significant variations in runoff evolution and its abrupt shifts in certain years. The combined results of bibliometric analysis and runoff data analysis further demonstrate the profound impact of climate change on the basin’s hydrological dynamics, providing a deep insight for water resource management and ecological protection in the region.
		2025 Vol. 44 (4): 108-117 [Abstract] ( 42 ) PDF (4799 KB) ( 96 )

	118	Variable-speed operation control strategy for small hydropower generators based on optimal guide vane openings
		ZHU Ziyi, LOU Yaolin, LIU Shuran, LIU Deyou, KE Haisen, WANG Zhiyang
		DOI: 10.11660/slfdxb.20250412
		The efficiency of water energy utilization of a conventional fixed-speed small hydropower unit is often very low when its operation deviates from the design conditions. However, by examining the comprehensive characteristic curves of the turbine, a law that for a unit under the optimal guide vane opening and a certain optimal unit speed achieves the highest efficiency of water energy utilization has been found. And, a variable-speed control strategy was proposed to achieve such an efficiency, particularly for the condition of significant water head variations. This paper presents a mathematical model for simulations of a variable-speed small hydropower unit, incorporating the operation of the turbine, governor, generator and converter. A closed-loop variable-speed control system based on this new strategy was designed. Numerical simulation results indicate that compared to the fixed-speed operation scheme, the new scheme achieves a 2.39% increase in power output at the water head of 28 m. Field tests at the Zangtanqiao hydropower station verify that the small hydropower unit is successful in operating under its optimal guide vane opening and optimal rotational speed, and that the new control strategy improves power generation efficiency across high, medium, and low head conditions. The new strategy is easy to apply in the industry of small hydropower and of great significance to the real hydropower projects.
		2025 Vol. 44 (4): 118-129 [Abstract] ( 34 ) PDF (1954 KB) ( 55 )

	130	Integrated operation management of clean energy power stations from partnering perspective
		MENG Xiangxin, ZHOU Hua, PENG Yingzheng, TANG Wenzhe
		DOI: 10.11660/slfdxb.20250413
		The efficient allocation among hydropower, wind power, solar power, and energy storage projects is the major challenge facing by the mass exploitation of clean energies. Previous studies focused mostly on the multi-objective optimization of clean energy capacity allocation, while most of which analyzed merely qualitatively, lacking support from reality. In terms of building partnership among stakeholders of clean energy power plants, resolving competition and cooperation among diverse entities in complex power systems, and achieving integrated operation management, this paper constructed an integrated operation management framework for clean energy power plants from a partnership perspective, and explored the relationships among stakeholders. Based on an industry survey, we revealed the current status of multi-energy complementary coordination mechanisms, clean energy power trading, and stakeholder cooperation, therefore clarifying the main problems and their causes in the integrated operation management among hydropower-wind-solar-storage clean energy power plants. By analyzing three integrated operation management cases, we illustrated how to achieve the economic, social, and environmental goals of clean energy development through multi-energy complementarity and stakeholder cooperation. Based on these findings, following conclusions were suggested for integrated operation management: Establishing partnerships among stakeholders to achieve optimal resource allocation; Creating a power coordination as well as centralized control center for overall coordination of generation, grid, load, and storage; Developing an intelligent management platform for hydropower-wind-solar-storage power plants to efficiently realize multi-energy complementarity; Improving the clean energy electricity trading market to enhance resource allocation efficiency; Constructing small-scale energy storage stations to promote multi-energy complementation and ensure power stability; Innovating power station operation models to support rural revitalization and diversified development.
		2025 Vol. 44 (4): 130-142 [Abstract] ( 32 ) PDF (1530 KB) ( 138 )