Energy dissipation is a critical issue in the design and operation of water conservancy projects. The hydraulic characteristics of conventional flip buckets and partial-flip buckets were compared using the integrated method of hydraulic model test and numerical simulation. Some essential factors were compared and analyzed such as: movement characteristics of trajectory jets from the two types of flip buckets; distribution of dynamic pressure load on the plunge pool floor slab and its diffusion characteristics, feasibility study of RNG k-ε turbulence model to the solution of pulsating loads. The results show that the RNG k-ε turbulence model can achieve accurate simulation results for the movement characteristics of trajectory jets from flip buckets and partial-flip buckets, time-average pressure on the plunge pool floor slab and variations of the pulsating pressure root mean square on the plunge pool floor slab under different working conditions. Compared with the conventional flip buckets, partial-flip buckets led to a larger longitudinal stretch of trajectory jets and expansion of the impact zone in the plunge pool. Correspondingly, the peak of time-average pressure and root mean square of the pulsating pressure on the plunge pool floor slab shifted upstream and reduced significantly, which is all conducive to more energy dissipation.