Application of K-Ԑ Model to Compound Channels Having Diverging Flood Plains and Analysis of Depth Averaged Velocity Using Ansys(Fluent)

Abstract

Water has always been an essential part of civilization and wherever water has been found, civilization flourished. But at the same time this has a downside in the aspect that the increase in population coupled with the man-made dam related failures, landslides etc. has led to an increase in water-related catastrophe in these areas. Hence it is imperative for us to understand the effect of water bodies on its flood plains. When modelling, channels are sub-divided into two types: prismatic channels and non-prismatic channels. A channel is defined as a non-prismatic compound channel when the cross-sectional area throughout the channel is not uniform. It can be further sub-divided into 3 types with respect to the flood plains: converging, diverging and skewed. A channel with divergent flood plains is a type of compound channel where the flood plains eventually diverge out of the main channel. Most studies till now have been carried out on simple and prismatic compound channels while most of real life conditions are not that ideal and take place in non-prismatic channels. This study is done to understand the effects of flood on a non-prismatic diverging channel and the effects it has on the flood plains. Here the goal is to analyze the effectiveness of the k-e turbulence model in determining the flow parameters of such channels and comparing it experimental results. For this modelling ANSYS-FLUENT is being used. This research has been done by using ADV and pitot tube to calculate the velocities at the main channel and flood plain of the section respectively .The DAV(Depth Averaged Velocity has been found across the width of the channel at different sections . The findings of this work are useful to to validate the k-? model accuracy in predicting the water flows in diverging channels.