Turbulent Flow in a Central Vertical Slot Fishway: Numerical Assessment with RANS and LES Schemes
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 148, Issue 7
Abstract
The application of numerical models for fishway flow enables an improved comprehension of the turbulent flow structure, which is an important covariate used to explain fish passage. Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) with closure is the main numerical model to characterize the flow in fishways, but recently, large eddy simulation (LES) has been reported to be better at capturing turbulence in incompressible flows. Comparison between RANS and LES in analyses of fishways flows indicate limitations in both approaches to capture the turbulence parameters or sightly performance of LES for detailed scale studies. Vertical slot fishways are one of the most studied fish ladders, but few studies address the effect of different slot displacements on hydraulic parameters. Thus, the flow of the central vertical slot fishway was simulated in the open-source software OpenFOAM, and two models were applied: (1) RANS with closure; and (2) LES with the one-equation eddy viscosity (kEqn) scheme. The numerical results were compared to ADV data sampled in a physical model. The flow in a pool of central vertical slots creates two lateral flow recirculation areas and a central straight flux at different discharges and water levels. The RANS and LES kEqn models provide with the ADV data for all velocity ranges and for the smallest turbulent kinetic energy (TKE ). The LES kEqn model is slightly better in turbulence representation but the RANS reproduces velocity field more accurately. The RANS and LES model application in fish ladders will be useful for improving the comprehension of fish passage performance and practical aspects of fishways.
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Data Availability Statement
All simulation cases and OpenFOAM scripts that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to the Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica de Minas Gerais (CEFET-MG) for supporting the student scholarships of L. M., the Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG) for supporting the student scholarships of A. P. P., the Hídricon for enabling the use of laboratory facilities, the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, Brazil (CAPES) for supporting the postdoctoral scholarships of H. A. S. and student scholarships of L. M., and the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPQ) through the Projeto Universal (456390/2014-6) and IIHR—Hydroscience & Engineering (The University of Iowa) for enabling the use of its facilities during the postdoctoral training of H. A. S. This study was also partly funded by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, Brazil (CAPES), Finance Code 001. The authors are grateful to the staffers of Itamar Gonçalves and Gilbete Santos for support in the field research and computational laboratory.
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Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 148 • Issue 7 • July 2022
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© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Jun 11, 2021
Accepted: Jan 20, 2022
Published online: May 11, 2022
Published in print: Jul 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Oct 11, 2022
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