Sensitivity of Flow and Sediment Transport in Meandering Rivers to Scale Effects and Flow Rate

Abstract

Sensitivity of flow and sediment transport in a meandering river to variations in scaling and flow rate was studied. The FLUENT^™ code was used for evaluating the river flow characteristics, including the mean velocity field and the Reynolds stress components, as well as for particle trajectory analysis. Particular attention was given to the sensitivity of the sedimentation patterns of different size particles in the river bend for various scales. Simulation studies were performed for both a model river and a physical river. The physical river was geometrically similar to the model river, with a scaling ratio of 1:100, but with identical Froude number. The flow and particle deposition patterns in the physical and model rivers were compared. It was shown that the mean flow quantities exhibit dynamic similarity, but the turbulence parameters and the particle sedimentation features in the physical river were different from the model. The secondary flows and particle transport patterns were also found to be sensitive to variation in the scale and flow rate.