Use of CFD Modeling for Creating Recreational Opportunities at the Calgary Bow River Weir

The Calgary Bow River Weir Project is intended to remove an existing safety hazard created by an ogee weir, while maintaining the weir's ability to divert water for irrigation and not increasing upstream flood levels. The river reach downstream of the weir will be transformed into a high water channel and a low water channel, each comprised of multiple pool-and-drop features to provide recreational opportunities for boaters and improve fish passage at the site. Computational fluid dynamics models were developed to evaluate hydraulic conditions of design modifications to HWC Drop #1. In this study, a volume-of-fluid (VOF) model was employed to predict the water surface profile and to assess whether a hydraulic jump would form downstream of the drop structure. The CFD models were validated by comparing CFD results with qualitative and quantitative data collected in the physical models. The comparisons indicated that the CFD models were able to correctly predict hydraulic jump formation immediately downstream of the weir for the existing design, and demonstrated satisfactory hydraulic conditions for the proposed design at flows at which boat passage is expected to occur. This study demonstrated that CFD modeling is a viable tool for predicting flows involving highly deformed water surfaces, such as those associated with hydraulic jumps.