Characterisation of shear stresses and turbulence in meandering rivers

Numerical and experimental study

Funders

Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia

Participants

Universidade da Coruña

Duration

2008 - 2011

Researchers

Enrique Peña, Jose Anta, Luis Cea, Bruño Fraga

Description

This project is aimed to study in detail the velocity and turbulence fields in meandering rivers, characterising the flow patterns in both, the main channel as well as the floodplains. This study will also be used to validate and calibrate a numerical model for 3D turbulent free surface flow.

Different experiment series in a laboratory model of a meandering river will be made in order to study the 3D flow patterns which appear in the main channel in flood events. The experimental results will allow us to determine precisely the stream power in both the main channel and the floodplains and therefore, it will be possible to assess the damage produced to the ecosystem of the river. In this manner, effective protection measures can be designed. The experiments will be made in a scale model (1/20) of a meandering reach of the river Mero in A Coruña (Spain), which is already built in the CITEEC (Centro de Innovación Tecnológica en Edificación e Ingeniería Civil, Research Center in Civil Engineering) at the University of A Coruña.

The experimental results will also be used to calibrate and validate a numerical model for 3D turbulent free surface flow in meandering rivers during flood events. Differente turbulence models will be tested and the numerical results analysed in order to verify which models work better in such situations.

Keywords

3D model, secondary flows, meanders

Related works

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