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As with most high-velocity free-surface flows, stepped spillway flows become self-aerated when the drop height exceeds a critical value. Due to the step-induced macro-roughness, the flow field becomes more turbulent than on a similar smooth-invert chute. For this reason, cascades are oftentimes used as re-aeration structures in wastewater treatment. However, for stepped spillways as flood release structures downstream of deoxygenated reservoirs, gas transfer is also of crucial significance to meet ecological requirements. Prediction of mass transfer velocities becomes challenging, as the flow regime differs from typical previously studied flow conditions. In this paper, detailed air-water flow measurements are conducted on stepped spillway models with different geometry, with the aim to estimate the specific air-water interface. Re-aeration performances are determined by applying the absorption method. In contrast to earlier studies, the aerated water body is considered a continuous mixture up to a level where 75% air concentration is reached. Above this level, a homogenous surface wave field is considered, which is found to significantly affect the total air-water interface available for mass transfer. Geometrical characteristics of these surface waves are obtained from high-speed camera investigations. The results show that both the mean air concentration and the mean flow velocity have influence on the mass transfer. Finally, an empirical relationship for the mass transfer on stepped spillway models is proposed.
Robust estimators for free surface turbulence characterization: A stepped spillway application
(2020)
Robust estimators are parameters insensitive to the presence of outliers. However, they presume the shape of the variables’ probability density function. This study exemplifies the sensitivity of turbulent quantities to the use of classic and robust estimators and the presence of outliers in turbulent flow depth time series. A wide range of turbulence quantities was analysed based upon a stepped spillway case study, using flow depths sampled with Acoustic Displacement Meters as the flow variable of interest. The studied parameters include: the expected free surface level, the expected fluctuation intensity, the depth skewness, the autocorrelation timescales, the vertical velocity fluctuation intensity, the perturbations celerity and the one-dimensional free surface turbulence spectrum. Three levels of filtering were utilised prior to applying classic and robust estimators, showing that comparable robustness can be obtained either using classic estimators together with an intermediate filtering technique or using robust estimators instead, without any filtering technique.
Unsteady shallow meandering flows in rectangular reservoirs: a modal analysis of URANS modelling
(2022)
Shallow flows are common in natural and human-made environments. Even for simple rectangular shallow reservoirs, recent laboratory experiments show that the developing flow fields are particularly complex, involving large-scale turbulent structures. For specific combinations of reservoir size and hydraulic conditions, a meandering jet can be observed. While some aspects of this pseudo-2D flow pattern can be reproduced using a 2D numerical model, new 3D simulations, based on the unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations, show consistent advantages as presented herein. A Proper Orthogonal Decomposition was used to characterize the four most energetic modes of the meandering jet at the free surface level, allowing comparison against experimental data and 2D (depth-averaged) numerical results. Three different isotropic eddy viscosity models (RNG k-ε, k-ε, k-ω) were tested. The 3D models accurately predicted the frequency of the modes, whereas the amplitudes of the modes and associated energy were damped for the friction-dominant cases and augmented for non-frictional ones. The performance of the three turbulence models remained essentially similar, with slightly better predictions by RNG k-ε model in the case with the highest Reynolds number. Finally, the Q-criterion was used to identify vortices and study their dynamics, assisting on the identification of the differences between: i) the three-dimensional phenomenon (here reproduced), ii) its two-dimensional footprint in the free surface (experimental observations) and iii) the depth-averaged case (represented by 2D models).
Optical flow estimation is known from Computer Vision where it is used to determine obstacle movements through a sequence of images following an assumption of brightness conservation. This paper presents the first study on application of the optical flow method to aerated stepped spillway flows. For this purpose, the flow is captured with a high-speed camera and illuminated with a synchronized LED light source. The flow velocities, obtained using a basic Horn–Schunck method for estimation of the optical flow coupled with an image pyramid multi-resolution approach for image filtering, compare well with data from intrusive conductivity probe measurements. Application of the Horn–Schunck method yields densely populated flow field data sets with velocity information for every pixel. It is found that the image pyramid approach has the most significant effect on the accuracy compared to other image processing techniques. However, the final results show some dependency on the pixel intensity distribution, with better accuracy found for grey values between 100 and 150.
Since several decades, dam-break waves have been of main research interest. Mathematical approaches have been developed by analytical, physical and numerical models within the past 120 years. During the past 10 years, the number of research investigations has increased due to improved measurement techniques as well as significantly increased computer memories and performances. In this context, the present research deals with the initial stage of two-dimensional dam-break waves by comparing physical and numerical model results as well as analytical approaches. High-speed images and resulting particle image velocimetry calculations are thereby compared with the numerical volume-of-fluid (VOF) method, included in the commercial code FLOW-3D. Wave profiles and drag forces on placed obstacles are analysed in detail. Generally, a good agreement between the laboratory and VOF results is found.
Optimierung des potentiellen Sauerstoffeintrags auf Treppenschussrinnen mit gemäßigter Neigung
(2009)
Sensitivity of phase detection techniques in aerated chute flows to hydraulic design parameters
(2012)
Optimization of the reaeration potential on embankment stepped spillways in skimming flow regime
(2008)
Hydraulic modeling is the classical approach to investigate and describe complex fluid motion. Many empirical formulas in the literature used for the hydraulic design of river training measures and structures have been developed using experimental data from the laboratory. Although computer capacities have increased to a high level which allows to run complex numerical simulations on standard workstation nowadays, non-standard design of structures may still raise the need to perform physical model investigations. These investigations deliver insight into details of flow patterns and the effect of varying boundary conditions. Data from hydraulic model tests may be used for calibration of numerical models as well. As the field of hydraulic modeling is very complex, this chapter intends to give a short overview on capacities and limits of hydraulic modeling in regard to river flows and hydraulic structures only. The reader shall get a first idea of modeling principles and basic considerations. More detailed information can be found in the references.
Numerische Strömungssimulationen von Fließgewässern : Praxisanwendungen und zukünftige Entwicklungen
(2015)
Block ramps are ecologically oriented drop structures with adequate energy dissipation and partially moderate flow velocities. A special case is given with crossbar block ramps, where the upstream and downstream level difference is reduced by a series of basins. To prevent the total structure from failing, the stability of single boulders within the crossbars and the bed material in between must be guaranteed. The present paper addresses the stability of bed material and scour development for various flow regimes. Any bed material erosion may affect the stability of the crossbar boulders, which in turn can result in major damages of the ramp. Therefore new design approaches are developed to choose an appropriate bed material size and to avoid failures of crossbar block ramp structures.