Lateral distribution of depth average velocity & boundary shear stress in a gravel bed open channel flow

Abstract

ABSTRACT Gravel bed flow is so generic condition that its study becomes fascinating as well as critical to apprehend flow characteristic. In this particular study, no bed load movement was maintained using grains of 13.5 mm (D50 value) characterised as no load condition. Depth Average Velocity (DAV) and the Boundary Shear Stress (BSS) has been experimentally estimated for five different depths for the prevailing no load condition. Furthermore, the distribution of streamwise depth-averaged velocity and boundary shear stress at different flow depths of gravel bed are also calculated using different hydraulic software packages such as CES & ANSYS FLUENT. These numerical simulation results have shown reasonably good agreement with experimental data over main channel in inbank flow. Finally, results obtained are corroborated through error analysis. The overall idea of this study was to understand flow characteristic and behaviour of gravel bed having inbank flow through experimental and numerical simulation techniques.