Abstract
For the hydraulic protection of the penstock of a high-head power plant typically a pipe rupture valve is installed. As an alternative to this, a wall can be added in the penstock as a fixed installation. In case of an emergency the gate at the upper reservoir is closed and this local high point allows holding back the water behind. In this paper this alternative concept is presented based on a research project at the University of Innsbruck. Therefore, different basic scale model tests are conducted to study steady and unsteady behaviour of this installation. In addition, these results are also used to validate numerical 1D and 3D calculations and as well as a proof of concept.