Experimental analysis of flow around a rectangular spur dike

Abstract

Flume experiments were conducted to investigate the three dimensional flow structure and turbulent flow mechanisms around a non-submerged, sidewall-attached rectangular spur dike with a low length-to-depth ratio. Velocity measurements show that the wake of the spur dike in the mid-depth region consists of a single, large recirculation zone, while that in the near bed region is comprised of a horizontal recirculation zone and a corner vortex with its axis perpendicular to the flume sidewalls. A horseshoe vortex system observed in front of the spur dike is found to interact with the downstream recirculation zone, which results in the increase in lateral turbulent mixing especially in near-bed regions. Another vortex, which rotates in the opposite direction to the horseshoe vortex, is found beneath the free surface in front of the spur dike, which is associated with increased free surface elevation and its fluctuation. Power spectra of the transverse velocity show evidence of a periodic behavior of the near-wake shear layer emanating from the tip of the spur dike with a Strouhal number of about 2. It is also shown that the two experiments conducted at different Reynolds and Froude numbers show very similar flow fields in spite of large differences in free surface elevations, which indicates that the effects of free surface deformation on mean velocities and Reynolds stresses is marginal.