NUMERICAL MODELING OF OPEN CHANNEL FLOW INTERACTING WITH RADIAL GATE

The surface profiles of open channel flow controlled with radial gate are investigated experimentally and numerically for different flow conditions. Basic equations of the problem are solved by ANSYS-Fluent program package based on finite volume method for the flow case having the same experimental condition. In the numerical simulations, Renormalization group(RNG) k-ε, Shear Stress Transport (SST) k-ω and Reynolds Stress Model (RSM) based on the Reynolds Average Navier Stokes (RANS) equations are used for the simulation of turbulence, and Volume of Fluid (VOF) method is used to determine the free surface profile. Experimental surface profiles measurement by limnimeter are compared with numerical surface profile obtained from different turbulence models. As a result of the comparison, it was found that the open channel flow of the radial gate control, Shear Stress Transport k-ω model was more successful than the other models used in determining the water surface profiles