Transport of isotropic particles in a partially obstructed channel flow

Antoine Joly (1) , Damien Violeau (1) , Frédéric Moulin (2) , Dominique Astruc (2) , Christophe Kassiotis (1)

1 LHSV - Laboratoire d'Hydraulique Saint-Venant / Saint-Venant Laboratory for Hydraulics
2 IMFT - Institut de mécanique des fluides de Toulouse

The transport of particles in turbulent flows is a common problem in hydraulic engineering. In this paper, the focus is set on a numerical model used to simulate the transport of small bodies (debris, algae, etc.) along a coastline. In this problem, the particles are larger than the small turbulent eddies, but smaller than the large turbulent eddies, and sufficiently diluted within the flow so that each particle does not affect the flow or the motion of other particles. A mixed Eulerian-Lagrangian approach was chosen in order to model a large flow area with sufficient information for the turbulent diffusion. This model is validated through an experiment on particles released into a partially obstructed channel flow. The measurements are then compared with simulations using two Eulerian industrial codes, Telemac-2D and OpenFoam. Finally, an application to algae bloom transport in a harbour is presented.

Keywords: Lagrangian model; Partially obstructed channel; Particle diffusion; Stochastic transport; Video particle tracking

Domains: Fluids mechanics [physics.class-ph]

Antoine Joly, Damien Violeau, Frédéric Moulin, Dominique Astruc, Christophe Kassiotis. Transport of isotropic particles in a partially obstructed channel flow. Journal of Hydraulic Research, 2012, 50 (3), pp.324-337. ⟨10.1080/00221686.2012.686457⟩. ⟨hal-00796099⟩