Mean flow, turbulence, and free-surface location in a canoe chute physical model

BOMBARDELLI, F.; GUALA, M.; GARCÍA, C.M.; BRISKIN, B.; GARCÍA M.H.

Estes Park, Colorado, USA.

Conferencia; Hydraulic Measurements & Experimental Methods; 2002

Environmental and Water Resources Institute of ASCE (EWRI) y International Association of Hydraulic Engineering and Research (IAHR)

This paper presents a study whose purpose is to help in the understandingof the characteristics of the flow through and downstream of a series ofabrupt 3D contractions/expansions, seeing them more from the fluidmechanics point of view, rather than from the hydraulic perspective. Thesecontractions/expansions comprise cross-sectional area changes in plan andside views in an open channel. An existing model, built to optimize thedesign of canoe chutes, was considered as suitable for this endeavor. Thedevice included up to five “drop” structures, and flow variables wereobserved in one of them. Measurements of the three-dimensional velocityfield and of the geometry of the free surface were performed. This paperdescribes and analyzes those measurements, as well as the feasibility ofusing acoustic sensors for measuring the location of the free surface