Bend-Flow Simulation Using 2D Depth-Averaged Model

The purpose of this paper is to present a 2D depth-averaged model for simulating and examining flow patters in channel bends. In particular, this paper proposes a 2D depth-averaged model that takes into account the influence of the secondary flow phenomenon through the calculation of the dispersion stresses arisen from the integration of the products of the discrepancy between the mean and the true velocity distributions. The proposed model uses an orthogonal curvilinear coordinate system to efficiently and accurately simulate the flow field with irregular boundaries. As for the numerical solution procedure, the two-step split-operator approach consisting of the dispersion step and the propagation step with the staggered grid is used to numerically solve the flow governing equations. Two sets of experimental data from de Vriend and Koch and from Rozovskii were used to demonstrate the model’s capabilities. The former data set was from a mildly curved channel, whereas the latter was from a sharply curved channel. The simulations considering the secondary flow effect agree well with the measured data. Furthermore, an examination of the dispersion stress terms shows that the dispersion stresses play a major role in the transverse convection of the momentum shifting from the inner bank to the outer bank for flows in both mild and sharp bends.