DOI: 10.1615/TSFP10
Simulation of the turbulent flow over an array of flexible blades
摘要
Aquatic ecosystems constitute a key topic due to their
abundance and their various roles on different scales, ranging
from the quality of drinking water taken from the local river to the large-scale impact on climate change. The fluid mechanical interaction between the flow and the flexible plants in an aquatic canopy is a key element determining hydraulics, as well as the transport of sediment, nutrients, and pollutants. In order to fully understand the mutual interaction between the fluid flow and the plants a detailed analysis of the generated three-dimensional flow data is of crucial importance.
This work presents a numerical method which is well suited for
simulations of abstracted aquatic canopy flows in the framework of a Large Eddy Simulation. It is employed to simulate the turbulent flow over a model canopy of 800 flexible blades at a Cauchy number of 16.5 which is the largest canopy-resolving simulation of this type done so far. The simulation data are analysed to get a deeper understanding of the physics of aquatic canopies, e.g., concerning the existence and shape of coherent vortex structures.