Measurement of turbulent flow in a narrow open channel

Abstract

Abstract The paper presents the experimental results of turbulent flow over hydraulically smooth and rough beds. Experiments were conducted in a rectangular flume under the aspect ratio b/h = 2 (b = width of the channel 0.5 m, and h = flow depth 0.25 m) for both the bed conditions. For the hydraulically rough bed, the roughness was created by using 3/8″ commercially available angular crushed stone chips; whereas sand of a median diameter d50 = 1.9 mm was used as the bed material for hydraulically smooth bed. The three-dimensional velocity components were captured by using a Vectrino (an acoustic Doppler velocimeter). The study focuses mainly on the turbulent characteristics within the dip that were observed towards the sidewall (corner) of the channel where the maximum velocity occurs below the free-surface. It was also observed that the nondimensional Reynolds shear stress changes its sign from positive to negative within the dip. The quadrant plots for the turbulent bursting shows that the signs of all the bursting events change within the dip. Below the dip, the probability of the occurrence of sweeps and ejections are more than that of inward and outward interactions. On the other hand, within the dip, the probability of the occurrence of the outward and inward interactions is more than that of sweeps and ejections.