PIV and LDA measurements of secondary flow in a meandering channel for overbank flow

Secondary flow in a compound meandering channel with straight floodplain banks for overbank was investigated by a visualization method and velocity measurement using three-component laser Doppler anemometor (LDA). The secondary flow in a cross section was visualized by the neutral buoyant tracer method with a submergible video camera. Secondary flow vectors in a cross section were obtained by using PIV software with captured frames from video source through PC and also by LDA measurements. From the comparison of the PIV and LDA results, it is found that PIV data show good agreement in quality with LDA measurements when the secondary flow is strong and stable as shown in this paper.