American Research Journal of Civil and Structural Engineering
ISSN (Online): 2577-5944
Numerical Analysis of Hydraulic Flow Characteristics in Prismatic Compound Channels Using Flow3D Software
1
PhD student, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi university of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran 2
Full Professor, Water Engineering Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad,
Mashhad, Iran 3
Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Tehran Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University,
Tehran, Iran 4
*Department of Civil Engineering, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran 5
Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering & Zachry Department of Civil Engineering, Texas A
and M University, Texas, U.S.A 6
Laboratory of Hydrology, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece &
Department of Natural Resources Development and Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural University of
Athens, Athens, Greece,
Citation: Zahra Askari, Saeed Reza Khodashenas, Kazem Esmaili, Mohsen Golian, Kaveh Ostad-AliAskari, Vijay P. Singh, Nicolas R. Dalezios, ”Numerical Analysis of Hydraulic Flow Characteristics in Prismatic
Compound Channels Using Flow3D Software”, American Research Journal of Civil and Structural Engineering, vol
3, no. 1, pp. 1-10.
Abstract
Compound channels are hydraulic sections that consist of two parts including the main channel
and the floodplain. The main channel conveys the usual runoffs and the basic discharge that often flows in
the river. Predicting the flow characteristics in the prismatic compound channels includes the effect of the
interaction between a fast flow in the main channel and a slower one in the floodplains. This speed difference
creates a shear layer at the interface between the main channel and the floodplain, which results in the exchange
of the size of the movement between the main channel and the floodplains. The result is a reduction in the
flow-conveyance capacity of the main channel and its increase in the floodplains, which should be considered
in flow modeling. On the other hand, Flow3D software is a great software for Computational Fluid Dynamics
that is used to solve complex geometry problems. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the Flow3D
model in numerical simulation of behavior of hydraulic flow characteristics such as velocity distribution,
shear stress distribution and in prismatic compound channels. In this study, Volume of Fluid Method (VOF)
was used to simulate water surface profiles and the dimensional Buckingham π theorem was used to extract
parameters without effective dimension; besides, the model’s precision was tested by an experimental analysis
in a rectangular flume. The results showed that the Flow3D numerical model has high accuracy in computing
the flow passing the prismatic compound channel and has been able to model the hydraulic parameters of the
flow and provide appropriate results.
