Application of the Two-Fluid Model to Prediction of Sediment Transport in Turbulent Open Channel Flow

Publication date: Available online 14 June 2019Source: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts A/B/CAuthor(s): Mina Ahadi, Donald J. Bergstrom, Kerry Anne MazurekAbstractThe two-fluid model formulation was used to predict the fluid and sediment transport in an open channel flow for a dilute concentration. A low Reynolds number k–ε model was used to represent the turbulence in the fluid phase; it included the effect of the sediment particles on the turbulence field. The particle-wall interactions were implemented using the boundary condition of Johnson and Jackson (1987), which resulted in a finite value for the sediment velocity at the bottom wall. The values of the specularity coefficient and coefficient of restitution for the particle-wall collisions were specified based on the experimental data. Overall, the two-fluid model prediction for the fluid velocity, sediment concentration, and turbulent kinetic energy profiles agreed well with the measurements. A key parameter for determining the sediment phase transport was the granular temperature, the level of which was set by the value of the specularity at the wall. In the context of the two-fluid model, the presence of the sediment particles was found to enhance the wall shear stress of the fluid phase.

Source: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts ABC - June 15, 2019 Category: Science Source Type: research