• The overflow type spillway has a crest shaped in the form of an ogee or S-shape  (Figure 5). The upper curve of the ogee is made to conform closely to the profile of the lower nappe of a ventilated sheet of water falling from a sharp crested weir (Figure 6). Flow over the crest of an overflow spillway is made to adhere to the face of the profile by preventing access of air to the underside of the sheet of flowing water. Naturally, the shape of the overflow spillway is designed according to the shape of the lower nappe of a free flowing weir conveying the discharge flood. Hence, any discharge higher than the design flood passing through the overflow spillway would try to shoot forward and get detached from the spillway surface, which reduces the efficiency of the spillway due to the presence of negative pressure between the sheet of water and spillway surface. For discharges at designed head, the spillway attains near-maximum efficiency. The profile of the spillway surface is continued in a tangent along a slope to support the sheet of flow on the face of the overflow. A reverse curve at the bottom of the slope turns the flow in to the apron of a sliding basis or in to the spillway discharge channel. 

• An ogee crest apron may comprise an entire spillway such as the overflow of a concrete gravity dam (Figure 7), or the ogee crest may only be the control structure for some other type of spillway (Figure 8).

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