Curved open-channel flows - a numerical study

The flow of water through a river bend can be characterized as a turbulent open-channel flow that is dominated by streamline curvature. In order to adequately manage the planimetry of meandering rivers and the according safety aspects, the features of the flow and the associated turbulence have to be understood well. This thesis presents results of detailed numerical simulations of curved open-channel flows on a laboratory scale. These flows can basically be considered as downscaled river bend flows. The presented results provide a broad image of the behavior of curved open-channel flows in general and their characteristics with respect to the secondary flow, the bed shear stresses and turbulence in particular. Hereby, these results also facilitate further development of parameterizations of these key bend flow features for lower-dimensional modeling tools that are used in the engineering practice.Environmental Fluid MechanicsCivil Engineering and Geoscience