Modelling the impact of wind stress and river discharge on Danshuei River plume

A three-dimensional, time-dependent, baroclinic, hydrodynamic and salinity model, UnTRIM, was performed and applied to the Danshuei River estuarine system and adjacent coastal sea in northern Taiwan. The model forcing functions consist of tidal elevations along the open boundaries and freshwater inflows from the main stream and major tributaries in the Danshuei River estuarine system. The bottom friction coefficient was adjusted to achieve model calibration and verification in model simulations of barotropic and baroclinic flows. The turbulent diffusivities were ascertained through comparison of simulated salinity time series with observations. The model simulation results are in qualitative agreement with the available field data.     

A 3D non-linear k–ε turbulent model for prediction of flow and mass transport in channel with vegetation

The results from a 3D non-linear k–ε turbulence model with vegetation are presented to investigate the flow structure, the velocity distribution and mass transport process in a straight compound open channel and a curved open channel. The 3D numerical model for calculating flow is set up in non-orthogonal curvilinear coordinates in order to calculate the complex boundary channel. The finite volume method is used to disperse the governing equations and the SIMPLEC algorithm is applied to acquire the coupling of velocity and pressure. The non-linear k–ε turbulent model has good useful value because of taking into account the anisotropy and not increasing the computational time. The water level of this model is determined from 2D Poisson equation derived from 2D depth-averaged momentum equations. For concentration simulation, an expression for dispersion through vegetation is derived in the present work for the mixing due to flow over vegetation. The simulated results are in good agreement with available experimental data, which indicates that the developed 3D model can predict the flow structure and mass transport in the open channel with vegetation.     

A two scale cellular automaton for flow dynamics modeling (2CAFDYM)

In this paper we propose a Two scale Cellular Automaton for Flow DYnamics Modeling (2CAFDYM) in a lowland region. Cells are terrain meshes with a predefined size, arranged in a bi-dimensional hexagonal lattice. The state of the cell consists of two scales: groundwater and surface water, in order to combine flows over saturated soil (Dunne flow) and flows exceeding the infiltration capacity (Hortonian flow). This allows for survey flood events and water resources. Each cell has intrinsic terrain attributes: altitude, soil type and land use. The obtained slopes are considered towards all the neighboring cells such that water flows simultaneously in multiple directions during the same time step. This helps us characterize laminar and turbulent flows. The model is subjected to climatic constraints: rainfall and temperature. The flow dynamics are regulated by mass conservation laws on hydraulic balance sheets (received, evaporated, infiltrated and drained water). Using Java Object Oriented Programming we have designed decision-aided software for the real-time monitoring of flow processes in 2D or 3D scenes through 2CAFDYM. We give some simulations for a basin in northern Morocco covering 34.3 km², including some areas that are potentially vulnerable to flooding. Digital terrain models, geological maps and satellite images are used to extract input data.     

A stochastic method to account for the ambient turbulence in Lagrangian Vortex computations

This paper describes a detailed implementation of the Synthetic Eddy Method (SEM) initially presented in Jarrin et al. (2006) applied to the Lagrangian Vortex simulation. While the treatment of turbulent diffusion is already extensively covered in scientific literature, this is one of the first attempts to represent ambient turbulence in a fully Lagrangian framework. This implementation is well suited to the integration of PSE (Particle Strength Exchange) or DVM (Diffusion Velocity Method), often used to account for molecular and turbulent diffusion in Lagrangian simulations. The adaptation and implementation of the SEM into a Lagrangian method using the PSE diffusion model is presented, and the turbulent velocity fields produced by this method are then analysed. In this adaptation, SEM turbulent structures are simply advected, without stretching or diffusion of their own, over the flow domain. This implementation proves its ability to produce turbulent velocity fields in accordance with any desired turbulent flow parameters. As the SEM is a purely mathematical and stochastic model, turbulent spectra and turbulent length scales are also investigated. With the addition of variation in the turbulent structures sizes, a satisfying representation of turbulent spectra is recovered, and a linear relation is obtained between the turbulent structures sizes and the Taylor macroscale. Lastly, the model is applied to the computation of a tidal turbine wake for different ambient turbulence levels, demonstrating the ability of this new implementation to emulate experimentally observed tendencies.     

Numerical modelling of residual flow and salinity in the Río de la Plata

The Río de la Plata discharges into the Atlantic Ocean. The particular characteristics of the study area, the variable width and shallowness of the river, the high fluvial discharges and the dynamic processes involving interactions between river discharges, tidal currents and wind, generate complex velocity and salinity fields. We applied the hydrodynamic model RMA-10 to examine the effects of various forcing (tides, flow discharge and winds) on residual currents and salinity fields in the Río de la Plata, focusing on the outer zone of the river. The RMA-10 code, developed by Ian King, is a multiparameter finite element model representing estuarine flow in three dimensions. In this study the model has been applied in a depth-averaged-baroclinic mode and a series of observed data is used for model calibration and verification. The model result shows that it is able to simulate velocity and the salinity fields with a reasonable accuracy. The analysis of residual currents in the river, when forced by freshwater discharge and astronomical tide, shows that the flow discharge takes place mainly over the shallower areas of the river and that the saline water is advected up-river through the deeper channels. The numerical simulations show that the winds from the South-West and North-East quadrants have a great influence over the salinity and velocity fields.     

Numerical modeling of turbulence-induced interfacial instability in two-phase flow with moving interface

The present paper introduces a new interfacial marker-level set method (IMLS) which is coupled with the Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations to predict the turbulence-induced interfacial instability of two-phase flow with moving interface. The governing RANS equations for time-dependent, axisymmetric and incompressible two-phase flow are described in both phases and solved separately using the control volume approach on structured cell-centered collocated grids. The transition from one phase to another is performed through a consistent balance of kinematic and dynamic conditions on the interface separating the two phases. The topological changes of the interface are predicted by applying the level set approach. By fitting a number of interfacial markers on the intersection points of the computational grids with the interface, the interfacial stresses and consequently, the interfacial driving forces are easily estimated. Moreover, the normal interface velocity, calculated at the interfacial markers positions, can be extended to the higher dimensional level set function and used for the interface advection process. The performance of linear and non-linear two-equation k–ε turbulence models is investigated in the context of the considered two-phase flow impinging problem, where a turbulent gas jet impinging on a free liquid surface. The numerical results obtained are evaluated through the comparison with the available experimental and analytical data. The nonlinear turbulence model showed superiority in predicting the interface deformation resulting from turbulent normal stresses. However, both linear and nonlinear turbulence models showed a similar behavior in predicting the interface deformation due to turbulent tangential stresses. In general, the developed IMLS numerical method showed a remarkable capability in predicting the dynamics of the considered two-phase immiscible flow problems and therefore it can be applied to quite a number of interface stability problems.     

New approaches in computational dynamics of the mixing flow

Between the most mature interdisciplinary areas, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) comes recently into focus. In the same time, it becomes more and more difficult to contribute fundamental research to it. However, although it remains unpredictable how CFD develops, it is part of what makes it an exciting and attractive discipline.This paper aims to exhibit some part of recent work in CFD. It concerns the qualitative approach of the turbulent behaviour of a mixing flow in an excitable media. Studying a mixing for a flow implies the analysis of successive stretching and folding phenomena for its particles, the influence of parameters and initial conditions. In the previous works, the study of the 3D non-periodic models exhibited a quite complicated behaviour. In agreement with experiments, there were involved some significant events, the so-called “rare events”. The variation of parameters had a great influence on the length and surface deformations. The experiments were realized with a special vortex installation, it was used a well-known aquatic algae as biologic material, and the water as basic fluid.In the paper there are presented some features of a qualitative comparative analysis of the model associated to the vortex flow technology. In the computational analysis there were used the fast analysis tools of MAPLE11 soft, in order to check the “rare events” and to complete the statistical analysis of the behaviour of the model.     

带自由液面粘性流体运动的最小二乘有限元模拟

给出了一种求解带自由液面流体运动的数值方法．流体运动的Navier-Stokes方程应用最小二乘有限元进行离散,有限差分法用来进行时间推进．采用Lagrange方法描述网格．将模型的计算结果与二维矩形和三维圆柱形坝溃的实验结果进行了对比．计算得到的时间历程与实验结果十分吻合,验证了最小二乘有限元在此类问题中应用的可能性．     

The influence of sampling frequency,non-linear interaction,and frictional effects upon the accuracy of the harmonic analysis of tidal simulations

A two dimensional tidal model of the northwest European shelf is used to examine the influence of sampling rate, number of harmonic constituents analysed for, and length of data upon the accuracy of tidal constituents. Calculations show that in shallow water, where non-linear interactions give rise to higher harmonics, an accurate analysis can be obtained from a short span of data provided the higher harmonics are included in the analysis. In very shallow water where the tidal range is comparable to the water depth, asymmetry in the tidal signal due to substantial differences in friction at times of high and low water produces a number of semi-diurnal constituents in particular ν₂ and L₂ that must be included in the harmonic analysis. When these constituents together with the “classical” shallow water constituents are used in the harmonic analysis then an accurate analysis can be performed on a short span of data. The significant saving in computer time, particularly for a fine grid three dimensional model of using frequent sampling and analysing for a full set of constituents is stressed.     

A new integrated surface and subsurface flows model and its verification

A new coupled model for simulating surface and subsurface flows in a fully integrated way is presented. This model contains two sub-models; one is the 2D kinematic wave approximation of the Saint Venant’s equations used to model runoff, and another is Richards’ equation for variably saturated subsurface flow. In this model, boundary conditions (the conditions describing groundwater discharge at the land surface or surface water infiltration into the subsurface) could be eliminated through mathematic transformations of the governing equation of surface and subsurface flows. The solution of surface and subsurface flows could be simultaneous. And the surface domain and subsurface domain could be considered as a fully integrated domain. This approach naturally provides pressure and fluxes continuity along land surface. In order to assess this modelling approach, several classical validations, verification and application test cases are presented. For overland flow solely, the model is compared to an analytical solution and to commonly use hydrological models. The integrated model is then validated with a sandbox laboratory experiment and a soil column test. Finally, the effects of rainfall intensity, hydraulic conductivity of soils and initial bulk water content of soils to runoff and infiltration of a homogeneous soil slope are studied under different conditions.     

Stochastic modelling of dynamic properties of nonlinear water waves

This paper describes the stochastic modelling of water waves and presents predictions of their structure. The work is based on the analysis of more than 10⁵ data points, obtained in the form of wave records during experiments in a channel¹. Both turbulent wind-driven waves and artificially generated waves superimposed on the former, were studied. The wave records were considered as random time series of events; and amplitudes, surface elevations and other characteristics were considered as stochastic processes, characterisable by their moments which were calculated from the wave records by means of a computer program. Despite the two-dimensional character of the flow, the suggested distributions are not inconsistent with oceanic data, provided that the latter are treated as two-dimensional.     

Inflow Treatment for the Simulation of Subsonic Jets with Turbulent Nozzle Boundary Layers

The state of the boundary layer at the nozzle exit of a circular nozzle-jet configuration has an important influence on the development of the shear layer and the emitted sound. Of special interest is the acoustic near-field obtained when the nozzle exit boundary layer is fully turbulent. The turbulent inflow generation and the inflow boundary treatment are important issues to be addressed. We use the Synthetic Eddy Method (SEM) to generate a turbulent inflow which reproduces mean flow and Reynolds stress profiles of specified reference data. The spatially and temporally varying synthetic fluctuations are imposed in the simulation by a forcing term added to the governing equations which is active in a small region downstream of the inflow boundary. This forcing in combination with characteristic boundary conditions allows for passing of upstream-propagating acoustic waves and avoids an uncontrolled drift of mean-flow quantities. We employ this inflow boundary treatment for a subsonic nozzle-jet flow simulation at a Reynolds number of ∼ 9500 and Mach number of 0.9. (© 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Applying a non-equilibrium wall function in k–ε turbulent modelling of hydrodynamic circulating flow

Wall bounded flow with severe adverse pressure, separation, reattachment and stagnation has non-equilibrium (NE) exhibition. A wall function in turbulent flow is a remedy to avoid resolving near wall complex phenomena using predetermined functions as boundary conditions. The advantage of this case is permission to use a relatively coarse near wall cells and hence saving CPU time. Standard wall function (SWF) is a semi-empirical function that is just valid for constant shear near wall cell and local equilibrium flow. Popovac and Hanjalic introduced a non-equilibrium wall function as (PWF) with a blending method in v²–f model. To investigate PWF in circulating flow, standard k–ε model that has key role in complex and expensive industrial problems is used in this study. The approach derived by Popovac and Hanjalic retains the functional form of the SWF and can be easily implemented in existing code. Simulation results are validated against direct numerical simulation (DNS) on channel and experimental data on backward facing step (BS) and a sharp U bend flow. Prediction with PWF shows that use of this wall function in k–ε model has not any sensitive change in near equilibrium flow. However, produces an improvement in NE conditions like flow in circulation zones.     

Streamwise oscillations of a cylinder beneath a free surface: Free surface effects on vortex formation modes

A computational study of a viscous incompressible two-fluid model with an oscillating cylinder is investigated at a Reynolds number of 200 and at a dimensionless displacement amplitude of A=0.13 and for the dimensionless forcing cylinder oscillation frequency-to-natural vortex shedding frequency ratios, f/f₀=1.5,2.5,3.5. Specifically, two-dimensional flow past a circular cylinder subject to forced in-line oscillations beneath a free surface is considered. The method is based on a finite volume discretization of the two-dimensional continuity and unsteady Navier-Stokes equations (when a solid body is present) on a fixed Cartesian grid. Two-fluid model based on improved volume-of-fluid method is used to discretize the free surface interface. The study focuses on the laminar asymmetric flow structure in the near wake region and lock-on phenomena at a Froude number of 0.2 and for the dimensionless cylinder submergence depths, h=0.25, 0.5 and 0.75. The equivorticity patterns and pressure distribution contours are used for the numerical flow visualization. The code validations in special cases show good comparisons with previous numerical results.     

Adaptive simplification of huge sets of terrain grid data for geosciences applications

We propose and discuss a new Lepp-surface method able to produce a small triangular approximation of huge sets of terrain grid data by using a two-goal strategy that assures both small approximation error and well-shaped 3D triangles. This is a refinement method which starts with a coarse initial triangulation of the input data, and incrementally selects and adds data points into the mesh as follows: for the edge e having the highest error in the mesh, one or two points close to (one or two) terminal edges associated with e are inserted in the mesh. The edge error is computed by adding the triangle approximation errors of the two triangles that share e, while each L₂-norm triangle error is computed by using a curvature tensor (a good approximation of the surface) at a representative point associated with both triangles. The method produces triangular approximations that capture well the relevant features of the terrain surface by naturally producing well-shaped triangles. We compare our method with a pure L₂-norm optimization method.     

A 3D hydrodynamic numerical model of the Río de la Plata and Montevideo’s coastal zone

The 3D hydrodynamic numerical model MOHID was applied in the Río de la Plata and Montevideo coastal zone in order to represent the main dynamics and to study its complex circulation pattern. The hydrodynamic model was calibrated and validated considering the following main forces: fresh water flow, astronomical and meteorological tides in the oceanic boundary, and wind acting on the water surface. A series of water levels measured at six coastal stations and vertical profiles of current velocity measured at four different locations in the estuarine zone of the Río de la Plata were used for calibrating and validating the hydrodynamic model. The calibration process was carried out in two steps. First the astronomical waves propagation was calibrated comparing harmonic constants of observed and computed sea surface elevation data. Next, both the astronomical and meteorological wave propagation was calibrated. Direct comparison of scatter plot and root-mean square errors of model results and field data were used when evaluating the calibration quality. The calibrated model shows good agreement with the measured water surface level in the entire domain with mean error values being minor than 20% of the measured data and correlation factors higher than 0.74. Also, the intensity and velocity direction observed in the currents data are well represented by the model in both bottom and surface levels with errors similar to 30% of the currents data components. Using the 3D calibrated model the bottom and surface residual circulation for a four month period of time was analyzed.     

Assessment of turbulence modeling for gas flow in two-dimensional convergent–divergent rocket nozzle

In the present study, the turbulent gas flow dynamics in a two-dimensional convergent–divergent rocket nozzle is numerically predicted and the associated physical phenomena are investigated for various operating conditions. The nozzle is assumed to have impermeable and adiabatic walls with a flow straightener in the upstream side and is connected to a plenum surrounding the nozzle geometry and extended in the downstream direction. In this integrated component model, the inlet flow is assumed a two-dimensional, steady, compressible, turbulent and subsonic. The physics based mathematical model of the considered flow consists of conservation of mass, momentum and energy equations subject to appropriate boundary conditions as defined by the physical problem stated above. The system of the governing equations with turbulent effects is solved numerically using different turbulence models to demonstrate their numerical accuracy in predicting the characteristics of turbulent gas flow in such complex geometry. The performance of the different turbulence models adopted has been assessed by comparing the obtained results of the static wall pressure and the shock position with the available experimental and numerical data. The dimensionless shear stress at the nozzle wall and the separation point are also computed and the flow field is illustrated. The various implemented turbulence models have shown different behavior of the turbulent characteristics. However, the shear-stress transport (SST) k–ω model exhibits the best overall agreement with the experimental measurements. In general, the proposed numerical procedure applied in the present paper shows good capability in predicting the physical phenomena and the flow characteristics encountered in such kinds of complex turbulent flow.     

CFD of turbulent transport of particles behind a backward-facing step using a new model—k-ε-Sp

The k-ε-S_p model, describing two-dimensional gas–solid two-phase turbulent flow, has been developed. In this model, the diffusion flux and slip velocity of solid particles are introduced to represent the particle motion in two-phase flow. Based on this model, the gas–solid two-phase turbulent flow behind a vertical backward-facing step is simulated numerically and the turbulent transport velocities of solid particles with high density behind the step are predicted. The numerical simulation is validated by comparing the results of the numerical calculation with two other two-phase turbulent flow models (k-ε-A_p, k-ε-k_p) by Laslandes and the experimental measurements. This model, not only has the same virtues of predicting the longitudinal transport of the solid particles as the present practical two-phase flow models, but also can predict the lateral transport of the solid particles correctly.     

Steady state numerical simulation of the particle collection efficiency of a new urban sustainable gravity settler using design of experiments by FVM

The aim of this work is to analyze the efficiency of a new sustainable urban gravity settler to avoid the solid particle transport, to improve the water waste quality and to prevent pollution problems due to rain water harvesting in areas with no drainage pavement. In order to get this objective, it is necessary to solve particle transport equations along with the turbulent fluid flow equations since there are two phases: solid phase (sand particles) and fluid phase (water). In the first place, the turbulent flow is modelled by solving the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations for incompressible viscous flows through the finite volume method (FVM) and then, once the flow velocity field has been determined, representative particles are tracked using the Lagrangian approach. Within the particle transport models, a particle transport model termed as Lagrangian particle tracking model is used, where particulates are tracked through the flow in a Lagrangian way. The full particulate phase is modelled by just a sample of about 2,000 individual particles. The tracking is carried out by forming a set of ordinary differential equations in time for each particle, consisting of equations for position and velocity. These equations are then integrated using a simple integration method to calculate the behaviour of the particles as they traverse the flow domain. The entire FVM model is built and the design of experiments (DOE) method was used to limit the number of simulations required, saving on the computational time significantly needed to arrive at the optimum configuration of the settler. Finally, conclusions of this work are exposed.     

Multiscale analysis and reconstruction of time series of stochastic cascade processes

We propose a new method to generate synthetical time series of hierarchical stochastic processes. Based on the statistics of n–scale joint PDFs, the stochastic properties of a time series are modeled simultaneously on many scales. The application to a data set of turbulent velocities is demonstrated, showing the ability of the approach to reproduce the correct statistics of the original time series on all considered scales. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)