Three-dimensional numerical simulation of flow in trapezoidal cutthroat flumes based on FLOW-3D

Abstract

To solve the common problem of flumes flow-measurement accuracy without sacrificing water head, a new type of trapezoidal cutthroat flume to measure the discharge in terminal trapezoidal channels is presented. Using the computational fluid dynamic method, three-dimensional flow fields in trapezoidal cutthroat flumes were simulated using the RNG k-ε three-dimensional turbulence model along with the TruVOF technique. Simulations were performed for 12 working conditions, with discharges up to 0.075 m³·s⁻¹ to determine hydraulic performance. Experimental data for the trapezoidal cutthroat flume in terminal trapezoidal channel were also obtained to validate the simulation results. Velocity distribution of the flume obtained from simulation analyses were compared with observed results based on time-averaged flow field and comparison yielded a solid agreement between results from the two methods, with relative error below 10%. The results indicated that the Froude number and the longitudinal average velocity increased along the convergence section and decreased in the divergent section. In the upper throat, the Froude number was less than 0.5, which meets the water measurement requirement, and the critical flow appeared near the throat section. The maximum water head loss of the trapezoidal cutthroat flume was less than 9% of the total head, compared to the rectangular cutthroat flume, and head loss of trapezoidal cutthroat flume was significantly less. Regression models developed for upstream depth versus discharge under different working conditions were satisfactory, with a relative error of less than 2.06%, which meets the common requirements of flow measurement in irrigation areas. It was concluded that trapezoidal cutthroat flumes can improve flow-measurement accuracy without sacrificing water head.

Keywords

distribution of velocity / Froude number / head loss / stage-discharge relationship / trapezoidal cutthroat flume

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support given by the Special Fund for Agro-scientific Research in the Public Interest of China (201503125) and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFC0400200).

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Danjie Ran, Wene Wang, and Xiaotao Hu declare that they have no conflicts of interest or financial conflicts to disclose.

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

The Author(s) 2018. Published by Higher Education Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)