Simulation of laminar flow passing through a T-splitter plate and bridge pier

Abstract

The present analysis focuses on the investigation of the two-dimensional flow passing a bridge pier nearby a splitter plate in different regimes of a laminar flow. The splitter plate is T-shaped and two different cases have been studied based on the form of the splitter plate relative to the bridge pier. The analysis is implemented for steady and incompressible water flow in an open channel. The current study deals with velocity vectors, drag coefficients, lift coefficients, and skin friction. The analysis of the velocity vector gave a good indicator about the separation process and dissipation, which occurs at the splitter plate before the occurrence of these processes at the front face of the pier, especially the flow separation process. Moreover, the velocity vector gave a good image about the flow direction at two regions, the first region is located between the rear portion of the splitter plate and the frontal face of the pier, while the second region is the wake region, which is located at the downstream of the pier. Negative drag coefficient, lift coefficient, and skin friction coefficient values are obtained from the analysis. This happens due to the existence of the splitter plate that leads to the reduction of these values.