hi everyone.

I'm involved with the design of a flowtank for a new hydraulic flume for Aberdeen University as part of my masters thesis. the flume is to be used for various hydraulic studies in the future such as the modelling of weir flow etc.

this requires single phase water flow (up to 200 l/s) out of a pipe, into a large open (two phase) tank. the tank then tapers down to the entrance to the hydraulic flume which should produce as smooth a flow and free surface as possible.

can anyone suggest any details of the model i should choose for accuracy as there seems to be several options which would work...? i'm a complete beginner...

I'm using so far: VOF, 3d, air (primary) and water (secondary) phases, etc.

thanks very much for any help you can give me, cheers

What are the respective sizes of the component geometries, and what do you want to learn from the model?

My initial comment is that you probably have a strong jet exiting the pipe into the tank, which can be challenging and time consuming to model with two-phase VOF methods.

the model is to test two or three different geometries for the flowtank, so the most effective one at reducing the turbulence, or at least breaking up the large, long-term eddy structures can be selected for construction.

eventually the geometry will include baffles and a honeycomb flow straightener to get the "uniform" section of flow in the flume as large as possible, but initially i just need to get the model to work...

the flume is around 20m long, 1.2m wide and around 1m high. the flowtank at the entrance can be anything up to around 2.5m wide, 2m deep and 2m long...

anyone have any suggetions? please...?