Author(s): Shravan K. R. Raaghav; Ronald Driessen; Tom O’Mahoney; Rob Uittenbogaard; Herman J. H. Clercx; Matias Duran-Matute
Linked Author(s): Matias Duran Matute
Keywords: Bubble curtains; Gravity currents; Lock-exchange flow; Large-eddy simulations
Abstract: Seasonal droughts are becoming more prevalent due to climate change causing increased saltwater intrusion in rivers and shipping locks. Bubble curtains are one of the most popular and reliable choices for mitigation of this kind of salt intrusion. A good understanding of the physics and operation of the bubble curtains is crucial for better design and robust field installation. A key first step is to understand the fluid dynamics of bubble curtains in a prototypical lockexchange configuration; i. e., the bubble curtain separates the fresh and salty side of a lock. In this direction, Bacot et al. (2022) recently performed laboratory experiments and developed a theoretical framework to explain some of the observed flow characteristics. However, they also pointed out several limitations of both their experiments and theoretical analysis. We overcome two of them: the limited domain size and the difficulty of measuring very small density differences. To achieve this and further our understanding of bubble curtains, we performed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of bubble curtains in a lock-exchange configuration.
Year: 2024