Secondary flow in sharp open-channel bends: experiments and modeling

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Koen Blanckaert, Joris Heyman, Miao Wei, Danxun Li, Anton Schleiss

Tuesday 30 june 2015

14:35 - 14:50h at Oceania (level 0)

Themes: (T) Sediment management and morphodynamics, (ST) River morphodynamics

Parallel session: 6B. Sediment - River

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Secondary flow grows linearly with the ratio of flow depth to bend radius in weakly curved open-channel bends. In sharp bend, however, secondary flow is known to saturate, i.e. its growth is impeded due to nonlinear flow interactions. Previous papers have illustrated this process of secondary flow saturation and proposed a theoretic model. The present paper reports a series of laboratory experiments that investigate how the secondary flow separation depends on the flow depth, Froude number, and bed roughness. Furthermore, the data are used to assess the accuracy of the theoretical model.