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Scalar dispersion in turbulent open channel flows over smooth and rough beds

Study of passive dispersion of a neutral scalar in turbulentflows is highly important due
to its numerous applications in the areas of turbulent flow visualization, turbulent heat
transfer and transport of pollutants and other substances in the environment. Over the past
few decades, many analytical, numerical, and experimental studies have been conducted
on this topic to obtain a better understanding of the physical process. In the present work,
Large Eddy Simulations (LES) of scalar dispersion in turbulent flow over smooth and rough
channels is conducted to contribute to the further understanding of the relation between the
turbulent velocity field and the concentration field.
The LES results from the present work showed good agreement with a recently com-pleted experimental study(Rahman and Webster [2005]). An in-depth comparison of in-stantaneous concentration and velocity fields revealed thecorrelation between scalar dis-persion and coherent structures of the turbulent flow. Also,a three dimensional visual-ization of concentration iso-surfaces at different instants provided a good picture of the
concentration structures transported as a result of hairpin vortices of turbulent flow, which
is quite difficult to accomplish using experimental studies.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:GATECH/oai:smartech.gatech.edu:1853/44896
Date14 August 2012
CreatorsChen, Zhuo
PublisherGeorgia Institute of Technology
Source SetsGeorgia Tech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis

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