Hydropower and dam structures worldwide are facing evolving requirements due to changes in climate, better methods for flood estimates, combined with the needs of surrounding interests. Improved understanding of the hydraulic behavior of spillways, and the approach flow leading up to them, is important for evaluation of existing spillways and considering potential redesigns. There is limited research on the distribution of flow across a multiple outlet spillway, therefore a purpose built experimental setup is utilized to examine the impact of various geometrical changes on the flow distribution across a spillway with three outlets. The maximum difference measured between the different outlets were as much as 10%. While small changes to abutment and pier corners were found to reduce total discharge capacity up to 8%, with increased discharge and overflow height causing greater reduction in the capacity of the spillway. To further investigate the flow behavior leading up to the spillway outlets, ADV measurements were conducted to capture flow velocities. The measured flow cross sections indicate a stable flow field leading away from the inlet, stagnation zones and recirculation zones leading up to the spillway, with minor variations occurring for increasing inlet flow rates.

Measurements of mass flow through a three-outlet spillway modeled after a scaled-down spillway were conducted. The inlet and channel leading up to the outlets were placed to lead the water toward the outlet at an angle. With this, measurements of the water level at three locations were recorded by magnetostrictive sensors. The volumetric flow rates for each individual outlet were recorded separately to study the differences between them. Additionally, Acoustic Doppler Velocimetry was used to measure water velocities close to the outlets. The conditions changed were the inlet volume flow rate and the flow distribution was measured at 90, 100, 110, and 200 L per second. Differences between the outlets were mostly within the error margin of the instruments used in the experiments with larger differences shown for the 200 L test. The results produced together with a CAD model of the setup can be used for verification of CFD methods. A simulation with the k-epsilon turbulence model is included and compared to earlier experiments and the new experimental results. Larger differences are seen in the new experiments. Differing inlet conditions are assumed as the principal cause for the differences seen.

This study focuses on utilizing image techniques for river velocity measurement, with a specific emphasis onnatural surface floating patterns. Employing a multi-camera system, we conducted 3D measurements on riversurfaces, including surface velocity and water surface reconstruction. A pattern-based tracking approach hasbeen adopted to improve the performance of image measurements on different types of natural floating tracers.The study employs the following approaches: 3D Lagrangian Pattern Tracking Velocimetry (3D-LPTV), 2DLagrangian Pattern Velocimetry (2D- LPTV), and Large-scale Particle Image Velocimetry (LSPIV), for surfacevelocity estimation. The outcomes revealed that all three approaches yielded consistent results in terms ofaveraged velocity. However, the LSPIV method produced about two times higher uncertainty in measured velocitiescompared to the other methods. A strategy to assess the quality of river surface patterns in velocityestimation is presented. Specifically, the sum of squared interrogation area intensity gradient (SSIAIG) was foundto be strongly correlated with measurement uncertainty. Additionally, a term related to the peak sidelobe ratio(PSR) of the cross-correlation map was found as an effective constraint, ensuring the image-tracking processachieves high reliability. The precision of measurements increases corresponding to the increase of image intensitygradient and PSR.

Packed bed reactors play a crucial role in various industrial applications. This paper utilizes the Discrete Element Method (DEM), an efficient numerical technique for simulating the behavior of packed beds of particles as discrete phases. The focus is on generating densely packed particle beds. To ensure the model accuracy, specific DEM parameters were studied, including sub-step and rolling resistance. The analysis of the packed bed model extended to a detailed exploration of void fraction distribution along radial and vertical directions, considering the impact of wall interactions. Three different samples, spanning particle sizes from 0.3 mm to 6 mm, were used. Results indicated that the number of sub-steps significantly influences void fraction precision, a key criterion for comparing simulations with experimental results. Additionally, the study found that both loosely and densely packed beds of particles could be accurately represented by incorporating appropriate values for rolling friction. This value serves as an indicator of both inter-particle friction and friction between particles and the walls. An optimal rolling friction coefficient has been thereby suggested for the precise representation for the densely packed bed of spherical char particles.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present a fast and bare bones implementation of a numerical method for quickly simulating turbulent thermal flows on GPUs. The work also validates earlier research showing that the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) method is suitable for complex thermal flows.

Design/methodology/approach

A dual lattice hydrodynamic (D3Q27) thermal (D3Q7) multiple-relaxation time LBM model capable of thermal DNS calculations is implemented in CUDA.FindingsThe model has the same computational performance compared to earlier publications of similar LBM solvers. The solver is validated against three benchmark cases for turbulent thermal flow with available data and is shown to be in excellent agreement.

Originality/value

The combination of a D3Q27 and D3Q7 stencil for a multiple relaxation time -LBM has, to the authors’ knowledge, not been used for simulations of thermal flows. The code is made available in a public repository under a free license.

Hydropower is an important tool in the struggle for low-emission power production. In the Nordic countries, hydropower operating conditions are expected to change and work more in conjunction with intermittent power production. This in turn might increase the amount of hydropeaking events in the reaches downstream of hydropower plants. The current work investigates the influence of highly flexible, high-frequency hydropeaking on the hydrodynamics in the downstream reach. By quantifying four different dynamic stages in the study reach, the influence of the hydropeaking frequencies was investigated in the bypass reach of the Stornorrfors hydropower plant in the river Umeälven in northern Sweden. The hydrodynamics in the study reach were numerically modelled using the open source solver Delft3D. Eight different highly flexible future hydropeaking scenarios, varying from 12 to 60 flow changes per day, were considered. A method for identifying four hydropeaking stages—dewatering, dynamic, alternating and uniform —was introduced. The hydropeaking frequency directly decided the stage in most of the study reach. Furthermore, a Fourier analysis showed a significant difference between the stages and their corresponding power spectra. The classification of stages put forward in this work provides a novel, simple method to investigate the hydrodynamics due to hydropeaking in a river reach.