NUMERICAL MODELING OF RIVER DEAD ZONES AND THE EFFECTS OF FLOW REGIME ON HORIZONTAL VORTICES

Using dead zones of rivers for berthing purpose may involve some problems of which the most serious are sedimentation and silting. These processes depend on water flow pattern in these zones. In this paper, a two dimensional depth averaged model is explained for flow modeling in river dead zones. Governing equations of fluid flow are discretised using the “Control Volume” method and solved by applying the “SIMPLER” algorithm. To reduce some instability problems such as oscillation and non-convergence of the results, two dimensional results are compared with one dimensional data and some justifications are made where necessary. To verify the model, results of the flow modeling in backward facing step have been compared with some validated data and proved efficiency of the technique. The model was then applied to simulate a river dead zone flow. A rectangular geometrical section was applied and several Reynolds numbers were considered for flow modeling. Velocity profiles and vortices are given in some positions of the zone for several Reynolds numbers. Non-dimensional vortex length variations are drawn for several Reynolds number. The locations where sedimentation may occur are predicted and discussed based on velocity profile.