Recreating River Fluid Dynamics in a Water Channel*

Rivers are multifaceted systems that play a vital role in helping model the Earth’s surface and maintain the ecological system. Studying river fluid dynamics in controlled environments aids in modeling and testing riverine fields and replicating the complexity of natural rivers poses challenges. This research aim is to provide a riverine environment in a water channel in terms of a mean velocity profile, a turbulence intensity profile, and free surface fluctuations that are typical of large rivers. The velocity and turbulence profiles were achieved by using alternating winglets on a passive turbulence grid with angles set to obtain a velocity shear while free surface deflections and deformations were achieved by matching the Froude number of the Kvichak River. The data for velocity was collected with a hotwire probe at various vertical positions while the free surface was characterized with qualitative and quantitative image processing.  The results indicated a mean velocity profile with a shear exponent of about 0.1, a turbulence profile with an average intensity of about 10%, and a free surface with a surface deflection of about 10% of the water depth.  This fluid dynamic representation of typical riverine conditions can be used to investigate particle transport,etc.