Flow around circular and noncircular cylinders by a low-order panel method

Time-dependent cross-flow was studied around cylinders with circular and noncircular cross-sections. The numerical approach for the analysis was a low-order panel method based on constant source and dipole values along each panel. The method was previously used successfully for several applications, such as calculation of the added mass and damping coefficients. In simulating the viscous time-dependent flow around the cylinder, the time-dependent wake feature of the code was used. For the circular and D-cylinders, the results agreed well with the experiments. Suggestions for improving the results for T-cylinders with angle of attack are included.     

A Note on k - ε Modelling of Vegetation Canopy Air-Flows

The k - turbulence model is a standard of computational software packages for engineering, yet its application to canopy turbulence has not received comparable attention. This is probably due to the additional source (and/or sink) terms, whose parameterization remained uncertain. This model must include source terms for both turbulent kinetic energy (k) and the viscous dissipation rate (), to account for vegetation wake turbulence budget. In this note, we show how Kolmogorov's relation allows for an analytical solution to be calculated within the portion of a dense and homogeneous canopy where the mixing length does not vary. By substitution within model equations, this solution allows for a set of constraints on source term model coefficients to be derived.Those constraints should meet both Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes equationsand large-eddy simulation sub-grid scale turbulence modelling requirements.Although originating from within a limited portion of the canopy, the predictedcoefficients values must be valid elsewhere in order to make the model capable of predicting the whole canopy-layer flow with a single set of constants.     

A numerical study of island wakes in the Southern California Bight

With the existence of eight substantial islands in the Southern California Bight, the oceanic circulation is significantly affected by island wakes. In this paper a high-resolution numerical model (on a 1 km grid), forced by a high-resolution wind (2 km), is used to study the wakes. Island wakes arise due both to currents moving past islands and to wind wakes that force lee currents in response. A comparison between simulations with and without islands shows the surface enstrophy (i.e., area-integrated square of the vertical component of vorticity at the surface) decreases substantially when the islands in the oceanic model are removed, and the enstrophy decrease mainly takes place in the areas around the islands. Three cases of wake formation and evolution are analyzed for the Channel Islands, San Nicolas Island, and Santa Catalina Island. When flows squeeze through gaps between the Channel Islands, current shears arise, and the bottom drag makes a significant contribution to the vorticity generation. Downstream the vorticity rolls up into submesoscale eddies. When the California Current passes San Nicolas Island from the northwest, a relatively strong flow forms over the shelf break on the northeastern coast and gives rise to a locally large bottom stress that generates anticyclonic vorticity, while on the southwestern side, with an adverse flow pushing the main wake current away from the island, positive vorticity has been generated and a cyclonic eddy detaches into the wake. When the northward Southern California Countercurrent passes the irregular shape of Santa Catalina Island, cyclonic eddies form on the southeastern coast of the island, due primarily to lateral stress rather than bottom stress; they remain coherent as they detach and propagate downstream, and thus they are plausible candidates for the submesoscale “spirals on the sea” seen in many satellite images. Finally, the oceanic response to wind wakes is analyzed in a spin-up experiment with a time-invariant wind that exhibits strips of both positive and negative curl in the island lee. Corresponding vorticity strips in the ocean develop through the mechanism of Ekman pumping.     

The influence of lee sediment behind large bed elements on bedload transport rates in supply-limited channels

A coarse surface layer can help to limit bedload transport rates in channels with cobble and gravel beds. In these systems, periodic boulder-sized clasts often exist with small deposits of fine material in the lee of these large bed elements. A combined field and flume study was conducted to investigate the potential impact of lee deposits with distinctly finer sediment-sizes behind boulders on bedload transport rates. Detailed sediment characterizations were performed on surface, subsurface, and lee sediments in two coarse-bedded Connecticut channels. Bedload measurements also were conducted in a series of flows that approached the bankfull level in these two systems to determine transport rates and the size distribution of bedload material. A 6-m long, 0.5-m wide flume was used to model these systems with fine sediment passing over a fixed bed of sediment particles with uniform-sized, large bed elements. Sediment distributions of the lee deposits in the two Connecticut channels indicate that lee deposits may be produced from winnowing of sediments from the surface layer. Lee deposits also exhibit sediment distributions similar to bedload sediment distributions from low to near-bankfull flow in one of the two channels. Bedload sediments in the second channel were finer than lee deposits, presumably from selective entrainment of fines. Flume experiments demonstrate that bedload transport rates are lower for periods of steady flow relative to periods that include either an increase or decrease in discharge. The results show that lee sediments establish a metastable deposit behind each obstruction for a given discharge. Either increases or decreases in discharge disrupt this temporary stability and increase sediment delivery to the main flow. The study suggests that the influence of the rate of change in discharge may be as important as the absolute magnitude of discharge on sediment transport rates at moderate and low discharges in sediment-limited systems with large bed elements.