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The rotating hydraulics of the open-channel flow between two basins

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2006

Colin Y. Shen
Colin Y. Shen
Affiliation:
Department of Oceanography, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
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Abstract

The theory of rotating open-channel flow between two basins is presented and experimentally verified for three cases. The first case considered is the submerged weir-flow, i.e. the height of the channel floor is below the free-surface height of the fluid in the lower basin. Flow for this case is found to depend on the fluid level in the downstream basin when the fluid level there is high and is independent of the fluid level downstream as soon as the level falls below a critical height; at that point the flow in the channel becomes critical (controlled). The dependence of the flow on upstream potential vorticity and on rotation rate is also examined. It is shown that transport of the flow decreases whenever rotation rate or upstream potential vorticity is increased. The second case studied is controlled flow through a channel of irregular cross section (the truncated channel). Transport of this flow is shown to increase at some moderate rotations if the channel floor has a cross-channel slope similar to that of the surface of the current. Otherwise, the transport always decreases with rotation rate. The final case is concerned with supercritical separation of the current downstream of the control section, i.e. the current separates from the left wall of the channel (looking downstream). Visual evidence and measurements of formation of such a boundary current are obtained. Comparisons between the theory and the experiment for the three cases are generally reasonable except when flow separates in the control section; the theory is found inapplicable to such separation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 112 , November 1981 , pp. 161 - 188
Copyright
© 1981 Cambridge University Press

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