Numerical Modeling of Flow and Scouring Caused by Submerged Wall Jets Issuing from Sluice Gates

The present work uses the open source computational fluid dynamics (CFD) package-Open field Operation and Manipulation (OpenFOAM) to simulate the phenomenon of local scour due to submerged wall jets. Locating the water–air and fluid–sediment interfaces is the major task for modeling local scour problems. In this study, a volume-of-fluid (VOF) phase–fraction–based interface–capturing approach is used to capture the water–air interface, and the sediment continuity equation is employed to calculate the temporal changes in the bed elevation. As for turbulence modeling, the standard k–ε model is utilized for turbulence closure, primarily because it is one of the most widely used turbulence models, and can provide a good balance between accuracy and efficiency for simulations of turbulent jets. A new experiment similar to a benchmark experiment is also conducted, and the performance of the model is evaluated and validated by comparing the simulated profiles to both the previous and present experiments. The simulated results match satisfactorily with the measured data, demonstrating the capability of the model in predicting local scour due to submerged wall jets. Due to the open–source nature of OpenFOAM, the employed modules can be readily modified and extended, and can be coupled with different turbulence modeling techniques and bed load equations, wall functions, and interface tracking or capturing approaches.