Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamic simulation of hydraulic jump using periodic open boundaries

Abstract

The natural phenomena hydraulic jump that is commonly used in spillways as an energy dissipater coupled to hydropower applications has been investigated with Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics. A new approach was applied based on a periodic open boundary condition. The model consisted of a tank, a gate, a stilling basin and periodic open boundaries at each end of the computational domain. The tank provided a hydraulic head and in turn a specific flow through the gate, and a downstream condition in terms of a depth for the jump. The gate elevation had a major impact and was calibrated to ensure a correct and stable flow rate, when compared to experiments. With the proper flow rate, the position of the jump toe was significantly improved. The jump toe oscillated with a frequency in good agreement with experimental findings found in the literature and the oscillation amplitude increased with Froude number. However, for high Froude number cases the position was still too close to the gate but could be improved by including a correction based on the length of the jump. The depths in both the super- and subcritical zones was in good agreement with experiments and previous numerical studies. Furthermore, the Froude number was in-line with the definition of super- and subcritical flows.