Turbulent Open Channel Flow Research Articles

Experimental and numerical investigation of three-dimensional open channel with simulated partial ice-covers

This paper presents both experimental measurements and three-dimensional (3D) numerical simulations of turbulent flow in open channels with simulated partial ice-covers. The experiments were conducted with a particle image velocimetry system while the simulations were performed with five eddy-viscosity and second-moment closure turbulence models. Four coverage ratios based on the channel width were examined in each case: a reference fully open channel and 25%, 50% and 75% partially covered channels. The results showed that the influence of the partial ice-covers and secondary currents near the sidewall dramatically altered the distributions of the mean velocity, Reynolds stresses and turbulence production across the channel. Based on the 3D simulations, it was shown that the modifications to the turbulence quantities were largely influenced by strong counter-rotating secondary circulations in the core of the partially covered channels and eight smaller secondary cells at the corners. The core secondary circulations interact with adjacent corner cells to form a dynamic link between the open water and ice-covered sections of the channel.

Effects of non-locality on unsteady nonequilibrium sediment transport in turbulent flows: A study using space fractional ADE with fractional divergence

This study aims to develop a mathematical model that can describe the vertical distribution of suspended sediment particles in an open channel turbulent flow under unsteady nonequilibrium condition with non-local mixing effect. A space non-local transport of sediment is considered that arises due to turbulent bursting where the hopping height of a particle is not limited to a small distance as described by classical theory of turbulence, rather it can jump upto any height. To take into account this fact unlike previous researchers who used Rouse equation, Hunt equation or traditional advection–diffusion equation as the governing equation, the present study uses fractional advection–diffusion equation (fADE) where space fractional derivative for the local diffusive flux has been used that counts the effect of non-locality. The fractional derivative is considered in Caputo sense and the order α of the fractional derivative corresponds to α-order Le´vy stable distribution with value 1<α≤2. The non-local effect has been considered in the boundary conditions as well as in the non-linear models of sediment diffusivity. Four types of sediment diffusivity are considered which are generalized non-linear models for broad applicability of the study. The fADE together with the boundary and initial conditions, is solved by Chebyshev collocation method and Euler backward method. This proposed method is unconditionally convergent and converges more rapidly than other previous methods used in similar studies. Effects of non-local mixing have been investigated for transient and bottom concentration distributions. Proposed models have been validated for sediment distribution under steady and unsteady condition with existing experimental data and satisfactory results are obtained for all choices of sediment diffusivity. The variation of transient and bottom concentration with non-local effects are physically justified. Validation results show that the model can be applied to describe vertical concentration distribution in unsteady and steady turbulent flows in practical situation.

Characteristics of the flow structures through and around a submerged canopy patch

The flow around submerged canopy patches with finite sizes plays a critical role in the sediment deposition and vegetation evolution. In this study, the submerged canopy patch was modeled as a porous array with a diameter D and a height h consisting of N rigid cylinder elements with a diameter d and exposed to a fully developed turbulent open channel flow with a depth H. High-resolution numerical simulations were conducted to investigate the effects of array density (0.021 ≤ Φ = Nd2/D2 ≤ 1) on mean and instantaneous flow fields and three-dimensional coherent structures by fixing the aspect ratio h/D at 1 and the submergence H/h at 2. The results showed that as the array became denser, the streamwise bleeding flow decreased while the lateral and vertical bleeding flow increased. When Φ ≥ 0.098, the group behavior of the array became significant: (1) a vertical shear layer was formed at the top of the array, and the downflow behind the array increased with Φ; (2) horseshoe vortex systems formed around the upstream base of the array; and (3) although no patch-scale vortex shedding was observed in the vorticity field in all simulated cases, there was a dominant dimensionless frequency (StD) in the power spectrum of the lateral velocity, varying from 0.1614 to 0.1913.

Unsteady two-dimensional suspended sediment transport in open channel flow subject to deposition and re-entrainment

The present paper aims to investigate the transport of suspended sediment in an open channel turbulent flow. The method of moments is used to solve the unsteady two-dimensional suspended sediment transport equation where the moment equations are evaluated using a standard finite difference implicit scheme. The distribution of concentration is obtained using the Hermite polynomial representation of central moments. The solution exists for arbitrary form of eddy diffusivity and in contrast to other existing works, the present model considers the most general boundary condition at the channel bed which may be absorbing, reflecting or both. According to such nature of channel bed, the transport process has been distinguished into two phases, viz., suspension phase and deposition phase together with re-entrainment of particles. The model in its present form can be well applicable for sediment transportation in environmental processes.

Interaction of Very Large Scale Motion of Coherent Structures with Sediment Particle Exposure

A systematic variation of the exposure level of a spherical particle in an array of multiple spheres in a high Reynolds number turbulent open-channel flow regime was investigated while using the Large Eddy Simulation method. Our numerical study analysed hydrodynamic conditions of a sediment particle based on three different channel configurations, from full exposure to zero exposure level. Premultiplied spectrum analysis revealed that the effect of very-large-scale motion of coherent structures on the lift force on a fully exposed particle resulted in a bi-modal distribution with a weak low wave number and a local maximum of a high wave number. Lower exposure levels were found to exhibit a uni-modal distribution.

Turbulence anisotropy and intermittency in open-channel flows on rough beds

An experimental campaign, based on Particle Image Velocimetry measurements in a laboratory flume with different median sediment sizes in the no-motion condition, has been carried out aiming at investigating the effects of bed roughness on turbulence anisotropy in two different vertical zones of the turbulent open-channel flow. An analysis of turbulence anisotropy, which relies on second-order structure functions and anisotropy angle, has been performed. The scale-dependent anisotropy level has been quantified, verifying the tendency of the system to span from large-scale anisotropy, due to the main shear of the boundary layer, to small-scale isotropy. Isotropy is well-established for the largest sediment sizes. High-order structure function analysis reveals that intermittency is more pronounced in the near-bed layers, where the flow is more populated by coherent vortices. Spectral anisotropy and intermittency strongly characterize the transport properties of turbulence and are, therefore, important phenomena for natural bed rivers.

Study of unsteady nonequilibrium stratified suspended sediment distribution in open-channel turbulent flows using shifted Chebyshev polynomials

ABSTRACT In this paper the effect of stratification on vertical variation of sediment concentration in the suspended-load layer in turbulent flows through open channels under unsteady and nonequilibrium condition is investigated. Unlike previous studies, the model includes the effect of stratification in terms of reduction of the eddy diffusivity. A new approach for solving the governing advection-diffusion equation using orthogonal shifted Chebyshev polynomials of fourth kind is presented. In this approach, the solution of the problem is obtained using a finite degree Chebyshev polynomial. The distribution of the sediment diffusivity is considered including the effect of stratification. Three different types (constant, linear and parabolic) of sediment diffusivity distribution is considered both in neutral and stratified flow condition. The final transport equation is solved under both neutral and stratified condition and appropriate bottom boundary condition using the conventional backward Euler scheme. The method is unconditionally convergent and converges more rapidly than previous methods as Laplace transformation and generalized integral transformation technique. The solutions are compared with previous methods and satisfactory results are obtained. The proposed solutions are also validated with experimental data under steady flow conditions. Results show that under stratified flow condition, sediment concentration also decreases when flow is still unsteady.

Supercritical flow characteristics in smooth open channels with different aspect ratios

A transient numerical investigation is employed in this study to evaluate the influence of channel aspect ratio varying between 2.0 and 12.0 on the secondary currents and other flow characteristics in an open-channel turbulent flow at mildly supercritical Froude numbers. The transient three-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations are numerically solved using a finite volume approach with detached-eddy simulation as the turbulence model. The commonly used rigid-lid approximation to model the free surface is found to be unsatisfactory. A flat wave model linked with the volume of fluid method is used to simulate the free surface at the water–air interface to bring forth the realistic flow structures in the region below the free surface and the side walls. The size of the structures is dependent on the water column height rather than the channel aspect ratio. It is shown that the streamwise velocity profile across the channel has a strong dependence on the channel aspect ratio. This profile has two recognizable points of inflection for aspect ratios between 3.0 and 6.0, which move toward the sidewalls as the channel aspect ratio increases. A region of inviscid-like flow is seen about the channel central plane above a specific vertical location for a small channel aspect ratio only. The distribution of the contour patterns of the ratio of mean vertical and transverse secondary currents is similar for a wide range, and it does not depend on the channel aspect ratio. The transverse profiles of the Reynolds stresses are impacted by the channel aspect ratio and the vertical location from the channel bed. More waves form at the water–air interface in the narrower channel compared to the wider one, which indicates that the free-surface deformation is dependent on the channel aspect ratio. It is highly recommended that to study the fluid structure interaction problems in open channels, it is best to use a channel aspect ratio of 12 or greater.

Optimal Strategy to Tackle a 2D Numerical Analysis of Non-Uniform Flow over Artificial Dune Regions: A Comparison with Bibliography Experimental Results

Flow simulation over a dune requires the proper input of roughness coefficients. This study analyzed a numerical simulation of open-channel turbulent flow over two-dimensional fixed dunes to reveal the effect of roughness on the dune bottom, and to determine the optimized combination of the turbulence scheme and the roughness height formula. The most appropriate roughness values and turbulence models were applied using Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes models. Seven methods were chosen to estimate the bed roughness properties at the inlet boundary section. The results of all cases calculated with the OpenFOAM toolbox were compared with laboratory experimental data for model validation. The performances of all bed roughness variations were evaluated according to the stream-wise and depth-wise directions with nondimensional values. Consequently, it was revealed that the combination of bottom roughness length scale at the inlet boundary and the k-ω shear-stress transport (SST) model was the most suitable for the flow separation zone and turbulent properties near the channel bottom.

On the scaling of the instability of a flat sediment bed with respect to ripple-like patterns

Abstract

Destratification of thermally stratified turbulent open-channel flow by surface cooling

Abstract

Kinematics of Particles at Entrainment and Disentrainment

We address the issue of characterizing experimentally entrainment and disentrainment of sediment particles of cohesionless granular beds in turbulent open channel flows. Employing Particle Image Velocimetry, we identify episodes of entrainment and of disentrainment of bed particles by analysing the raw PIV images. We define a reference velocity for entrainment or disentrainment by space-averaging the flow field in the vicinity of the (entrained or disentrainned) particle and by time-averaging that space-average over a short duration encompassing the observed episode. All observations and measurements took place under generalized movement conditions and in non-controlled geometrical set-ups, resulting in unique databases of conditionally sampled turbulent flow kinematics associated with episodes of particle entrainment and of particle disentrainment. Exploring this database, the objective of this paper is to prove further insights on the dynamics of fluid-particle and particle-particle interactions at entrainment and disentrainment and to polemicize the use of a reference velocity to serve as a proxy for hydrodynamics actions responsible for entrainment or disentrainment. In particular, we quantify the reference velocity associated with entrainment and disentrainment episodes and discuss its potential to describe the observed motion vis-a-vis local bed micro-topography and the type of entrainment or disentrainment event. Entrainment may occur at a wide range of reference velocities, including smaller than mean (double-averaged) velocities. Anecdotal evidence was collected for some typologies of entrainment: (i) momentum transfer from flow to a single particle, (ii) momentum transfer from a perturbed local flow to a single particle, (iii) collective entrainment associated to momentum transfer between a moving and a resting particle and (iv) collective entrainment considered to be a dislodgment of several particles involving momentum transfer from other particles. In some of these cases, e.g., (ii) and (iii), the use of a reference velocity seems inadequate to characterize the entrainment episode. A word of caution about the use of entrainment models based on reference velocities is henceforth issued and contextualized. In the case of disentrainment, a reference velocity seems to constitute a better descriptor of the observed behaviour. The scatter in the observed values seems to express the contribution of bed micro-topography. All particles were found to experience frictional contacts with the resting bed surface particles, but some particles were stopped more abruptly due to the presence of an obstacle along their path. Most disentrainment of particles took place when the near-bed flow was featuring ejection events.

An unstructured finite volume method based on the projection method combined momentum interpolation with a central scheme for three-dimensional nonhydrostatic turbulent flows

This paper presents a three-dimensional nonhydrostatic model to solve the Navier–Stokes equations using an unstructured finite volume method. The physical domain could be geometrically arbitrary. To avoid the checkerboard problem caused by non-staggered grids, a momentum interpolation method is used by introducing face-normal velocities at the mid-points of the cell faces. As the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) requires at least second-order accuracy in time and in space for all the terms, a central scheme combined with an explicit Adams–Bashforth scheme is proposed in this model. The projection method is applied to decouple the velocity field and pressure. Several benchmark test cases are used to validate the second-order accuracy, the numerical stability and the performance of the model. Analysis on divergence noise using an unstructured collocated triangular grid, as well as on the ratio between vertical and horizontal spacing steps have been done to show the reliability of the model. The proposed model has been used to simulate backward-facing step flows, lid-cavity flows, turbulent open channel flows and the turbulent flows around a vertical cylinder. The convergence of the linear solver is analyzed in terms of the iterations and CPU time. The results are fairly in agreement with the references in the literature. The proposed model is able to correctly reproduce the characteristic flow features in all the test cases.

Characteristics of quasistationary near-wall turbulence subjected to strong stable stratification in open-channel flows

Turbulent open channel-flow under strongly stable thermal stratification is investigated. It is shown that the dominant effects of strong stable stratification on the characteristics of near-wall turbulence are transient. The budget of turbulent kinetic energy, the budget for the tangential Reynolds stress, and the relevant length scales are discussed. It is shown that near-wall turbulence at quasistationarity is approximately insensitive to the choice of upper thermal boundary condition.

Experimental and Numerical Investigations of Turbulent Open Channel Flow over a Rough Scour Hole Downstream of a Groundsill

This study discusses the mechanism for the occurrence of equilibrium and non-equilibrium scour holes. By using a particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurement system, it measures the turbulent flow fields in an open channel moving through the rough bed below a groundsill. Then, the Reynolds-stress model (RSM), embedded in FLUENT software, is applied to perform a numerical simulation. The experimental results show that at equilibrium, the location of the re-attachment point is significantly affected by the flow discharge. Further, the re-attachment point of the scour hole affects the size and range of the counterflow zone, which becomes the main region for deposits in the natural channel. In addition, the formation of erosion is mainly affected by turbulence intensity and Reynolds stress. However, in non-equilibrium scour holes, our results clearly show that the turbulence intensity and the Reynolds stress are significantly larger at the end of the scour holes near the bed due to the continual development of the scouring. The correlation between the numerical simulation and experimental results are also examined. Overall, it can be seen that the simulated mean velocity profiles are quite consistent with the measured data. However, in terms of turbulence intensities and Reynolds stress, the simulated results could be overestimated when compared with the measured data; they are overestimated with a sudden decrease near the liquid surface. Although, the simulations in the near bed area show some divergence and the trend in the scour hole is quite consistent. Therefore, numerical simulations can be performed in advance to act as an important reference when evaluating the safety of downstream structures.

Clustering behaviour and settling velocity of bidisperse inertial particles in turbulent open channel flow

The clustering behaviour and settling velocity of bidisperse inertial particles with sub-millimetre diameters travelling in a turbulent open channel flow are investigated using the simultaneous particle image velocimetry and particle tracking velocimetry measurement technique. Instantaneous images of flow field and inertial particles are separated based on different wavelengths of light emitted by fluorescent seeding particles and inertial particles. Four flow configurations of turbulence are generated by turbulence grids with different sizes in the open channel. The clustering behaviour of monodisperse and bidisperse inertial particles and the discrepancy between them in the different flow cases are studied. We found that bidisperse inertial particles have weaker clustering phenomenon as compared with corresponding monodisperse inertial particles and this weak clustering phenomenon is almost consistent when the Taylor microscale Reynolds number Reλ changes from 90 to 267. The relationship between settling velocity and local concentration of inertial particles is then investigated. The results support the preferential concentration as the mechanism for the enhancement of settling velocimetry when the normalized particle concentration is in the range of 0.1~10. However, the anisotropy property and large eddy effect in turbulence will greatly change the interaction between inertial particles and turbulent flows and further alter their settling velocity, such as the average settling velocity decreasing with increasing Stokes number which depends on the dissipation time scale. Accordingly, we propose a new dimensionless multiscale parameter SvηReL1/2 to take into account the effect of large eddies and turbulence anisotropy on the settling velocity. With the simultaneous measurement of particle settling velocities and fluid velocities, we also analyse the unsteady force term in the particle dynamic equation. When the turbulence intensity is small and/or the particle inertia related to particle diameter and density ratio between inertial particle and fluid is small, the unsteady term can have a large contribution and it should not be neglected in the particle dynamic equation for the point-particle method in the numerical simulations of particle-laden flows.

Assessment of force models on finite-sized particles at finite Reynolds numbers

Finite-sized inertial spherical particles are fully-resolved with the immersed boundary projection method (IBPM) in the turbulent open-channel flow by direct numerical simulation (DNS). The accuracy of the particle surface force models is investigated in comparison with the total force obtained via the fully-resolved method. The results show that the steady-state resistance only performs well in the streamwise direction, while the fluid acceleration force, the added-mass force, and the shear-induced Saffman lift can effectively compensate for the large-amplitude and high-frequency characteristics of the particle surface forces, especially for the wall-normal and spanwise components. The modified steady-state resistance with the correction effects of the acceleration and the fluid shear can better represent the overall forces imposed on the particles, and it is a preferable choice of the surface force model in the Lagrangian point-particle method.

Single sediment dynamics in turbulent flow over a porous bed – insights from interface-resolved simulations

We use interface-resolved direct numerical simulations to study the dynamics of a single sediment particle in a turbulent open channel flow over a fixed porous bed. The relative strength of the gravitational acceleration, quantified by the Galileo number, is varied so as to reproduce the different modes of sediment transport – resuspension, saltation and rolling. The results show that the sediment dynamics at lower Galileo numbers (i.e. resuspension and saltation) are mainly governed by the mean flow. Here, the regime of motion can be predicted by the ratio between the gravity and the shear-induced boundary force. In these cases, the sediment particle rapidly takes off when exposed to the flow, and proceeds with an oscillatory motion. Increasing the Galileo number, the frequency of these oscillations increases and their amplitude decreases, until the transport mode switches from resuspension to saltation. In this case, the sediment travels by short successive collisions with the bed. Further increasing the Galileo number, the particle rolls without detaching from the bed. Differently from the previous modes, the motion is triggered by extreme turbulent events, and the particle response depends on the specific initial conditions, at fixed Reynolds number. The results reveal that close to the onset of sediment motion, only turbulent sweeps can effectively trigger the particle motion by increasing the stagnation pressure upstream. We show that for the parameters in this study, a criterion based on the streamwise flow-induced force can successfully predict the incipient movement.

Prediction of wall-bounded turbulence from wall quantities using convolutional neural networks

A fully-convolutional neural-network model is used to predict the streamwise velocity fields at several wall-normal locations by taking as input the streamwise and spanwise wall-shear-stress planes in a turbulent open channel flow. The training data are generated by performing a direct numerical simulation (DNS) at a friction Reynolds number of Reτ = 180. Various networks are trained for predictions at three inner-scaled locations (y+ = 15, 30, 50) and for different time steps between input samples Δt+ s. The inherent non-linearity of the neural-network model enables a better prediction capability than linear methods, with a lower error in both the instantaneous flow fields and turbulent statistics. Using a dataset with higher Δt+ s improves the generalization at all the considered wall-normal locations, as long as the network capacity is sufficient to generalize over the dataset. The use of a multiple-output network, with parallel dedicated branches for two wall-normal locations, does not provide any improvement over two separated single-output networks, other than a moderate saving in training time. Training time can be effectively reduced, by a factor of 4, via a transfer learning method that initializes the network parameters using the optimized parameters of a previously-trained network.

Numerical investigation on the incipient motion of non-spherical sediment particles in bedload regime of open channel flows

Theoretical analysis and nowadays advanced numerical simulations for bedload particle transport widely share a popular assumption: All sediments are spherical and can be simplified as spheres, which apparently differs from reality. In order to explore the shape effects of sediment particles on their transport and to find out the possible consequence originated from the spherical assumption, a particle resolved computational model is established by combining the large eddy simulation for fluid and the discrete element method for the solid particles using an immersed boundary (IB) technique. Using this model, simulations are conducted for spherical and non-spherical bedload particles in both laminar and turbulent open channel flows. Simulation results show that shape of sediment particles has direct influence on the incipient motion in both laminar and turbulent flows. In laminar flows, the widely adopted spherical particles tend to exhibit over 5 times higher traveling speed compared with the non-spherical particles, and over 4 times longer time lag during incipient motion. In turbulent flows, the disk-shaped non-spherical particle yields up to 60% higher travel speed, 50% larger saltation height and 126% longer saltation length compared with spherical particles. The travel modes of non-spherical sediment particles during incipient motion are also analyzed.