Physical and Numerical Modeling of Flow Properties in Prismatic Compound Open Channel with Heterogeneous Roughness

Modeling of flow through the compound open channel is one of the main problems in the field of hydraulic engineering. One of the main parameter related to the flow properties in the compound open channel is Shear Stress. The shear stress is because of difference of velocities between the main channel and floodplains. The Shear Stress causes of turbulence and vortex creation on the border of main channel and floodplains. The difference between the roughness of main channel and floodplains intensities the shear stress in the border zone. In this investigation using the physical and numerical modeling the flow properties in the heterogeneous roughness prismatic compound open channel was studied. The study was carried out in the hydraulic laboratory of Tehran University and numerical modeling was conducted using the Flow 3D as famous computational fluid dynamic (CFD) tool. The results indicated that the Flow 3D software has high ability for modeling the flow characteristics in heterogeneous roughness prismatic compound open channel and the RNG turbulence mode is suitable for modeling the vortex on the border of both sections.