The trajectories of sediment grains

beneath a tidal bore : a numerical

study using OpenFOAM
Y. Satria Putra1, A. Beaudoin1, S. Huberson1 and L. Thomas1
1
Pprime Institute, Fluids, Thermal and Combustion Sciences Department (D2), team HydEE, Poitiers – France.

Introduction Numerical study

Tidal bores may appear in some estuaries when the tide reaches quickly a high level (Fig. 1). This The geometry of the tidal bores numerical simulations is derived from the experimental setup in an open
phenomenon is rare but has a strong impact during its short duration. The river bed is eroded and sediments channel where a gate was closed fully (hg = 0 m) or partially (hg = 0.1 m) (Fig.2) :
are transported. The study of this phenomenon can be very useful for the development of the natural life or
the man-made structures (CHANSON et al., 2010).

Fig. 2: Computational domain used for the numerical simulations.

Fig. 1: Undular tidal bore on the Dordogne River in France in October 2012 (left) and Breaking tidal bore on the Qiantang River
in China in September 2013 (right).
The computational domain is a rectangle with the dimensions Lx = 10 m (length) and Lz = 0.5 m (height).
Although a great deal of work has been devoted to these interactions, this complex phenomenon still retains This computational domain was discretised by 2000x200 meshes with a constant spacing on the two directions.
an unexplained part for which new insights and new tools may be of some interest. Although early times The channel bed was set with a no-slip boundary. The water inflow was imposed on the right boundary of
interpretations made use of analogies with animals fights, more recent mathematical tools are now available the channel at a velocity V0 between z = 0 to d0 m. The initial flow velocity positive downstream was fixed
and even a complete Navier-Stokes simulation of bore in simplified geometry is possible (LUBIN et al., 2010 to V0 = - 0.23 m/s for hg = 0 m (fully closed gate) and - 0.83 m/s for hg = 0.1 m (partially closed gate). The
and 2015). However, the velocity and pressure fields do not explain everything and further analysis is still top of the domain was set with a Neumann condition letting the air move freely in and out of the domain. In
required, especially regarding the sediments dynamic. To the best of our knowledge, CHANSON et al. (2011) order to generate the bore, the outflow boundary was closed between z = hg to 0.5 m with a no-slip boundary
were the first to tackle the sediment transport locally with the help of experiments. In particular, they look keeping a Neumann condition between z = 0 m to hg . The viscosities of air and water were set to µair =
to particles trajectories under undular and breaking bore trying to understand the dispersion induced by the 1.85x10−5 kg/ms and µwater = 10−3 kg/ms respectively, and the densities of air and water were set to ρair
flow. An interesting motivation for this work is to assess the spatio-temporal distribution of fish eggs in a = 1.1768 kg/m3 and ρwater = 1 000 kg/m3 respectively under a gravity of 9.80 m/s2.
tidal bore river, a subject of current interest for biologists: indeed, the concentration of fish eggs is intimately
tied to the salinity along the river and varies during the ebb-flow period (MACINNIS, 2012). CHANSON
et al. (2011) observed both helicoidal trajectories under an undular bore and chaotic trajectories under a
breaking bore. According to them, ”the orbital trajectories were somehow comparable to the particle motion
Results
beneath regular wave crests, but the entire trajectories were a combination of orbital paths superposed to a
Figure 3 presents the horizontal component of velocity fields obtained numerically with the CFD code
downstream advection”. In this work, two types of tidal bores resulting from the wave-current interaction
OpenFOAM solver that uses a LES model :
problem between the river flow and the tidal wave will be introduced. It will be shown that depending on
the condition the river current does or does not outweigh the tidal wave even though a tidal bore is observed
in both cases. In particular, the different flow configurations will be displayed for very close values of the
Froude number depending on the tidal bore as well as the river characteristics and conditions using the CFD
code OpenFOAM. Then, the trajectories of particles mass solving the modified Maxey-Riley equation will be
presented.

Governing equations Fig. 3: Horizontal component of velocity fields at time t = 5 seconds for a fully closed gate (left) and a spatially closed gate
(right).
Navier-Stokes equations
Assuming the fluid is incompressible, the flow of In Fig.3 - left, the horizontal component of the velocity field was completely positive and mostly negative
tidal bores is governed by the Navier-Stokes equations ∇·u=0 beneath crest and trough respectively. Beneath the first crest, the horizontal component of the velocity field
∂u
 

expressed in a velocity-pressure formulation (SIMON changed direction flowing upstream on the entire water column. In Fig.3 - right, the flow velocity evolved
ρ + (u · ∇) u = ρg − ∇p + µ∆u
 



∂t in synchronisation with the free surface. The horizontal component of the velocity field decelerated and re-


et al., 2013) :
accelerated beneath the wave crest and wave trough respectively contrarily to the previous case where the
where u is the flow velocity (m/s), t is the time (s), p is the pressure (Pa), g is the gravity (m/s2), ρ is the horizontal component of the velocity field changes direction.
fluid density (kg/m3) and µ is the dynamic viscosity of the fluid (Pa s). In this work, the previous system
of equations is solved by means of the CFD code OpenFOAM (http://openfoam.org), based on a LES
model.

Froude number
The Froude number F r is often used to characterise a tidal bore (CHANSON et al., 2010). In most
cases, the Froude number F r indicates the bore intensity and shape. The undular type occurs at low Froude
numbers F r < 1.3, and the breaking type occurs at high Froude numbers F r > 1.3 (KHEZRI et al., 2013).
For the tidal bores, the Froude number F r is defined by (CHANSON et al., 2010) :
where V0 is the initial flow velocity positive downstream (m/s), Ub is the
V0 + Ub bore velocity positive upstream for a stationary observer (m/s) and d0 is the
Fr = √
gd0 initial steady water depth (m).

Modified Maxey-Riley equation Fig. 4: Trajectories of sediment particles for a fully closed gate (left) and a spatially closed gate (right).
In this work, the interactions grain/fluid and grain/grain are assumed to be negligible. Thus the trajectory
In Figure 4, the trajectories of sediment particles are obtained by injecting the grains at x = 6 m with
of each particle can be described by the fundamental dynamics principle (BERCHET et al., 2014) :
the heights y = 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 cm. The density of these grains ranges from 1000 kg/m3 to 2400 kg/m3.
In Fig.4 - left, the trajectories of sediment grains form spirals that partly due to the current and the gravity.
d~xi These trajectories are called ribbon-like trajectories. In Fig.4 - right, the sediment grains experience the
= ~vi(t)
dt undulation while continuing downstream in the upper area. These trajectories are called undulating ribbon-
d~vi D~ui 1 d  1 2 2 
 

mi
!

= Vi ρp − ρf ~g + mf − mf ~vi − ~ui − ri ∇ ~ui like trajectories. For y < 1 cm, the trajectories are much more complex due to the strong interactions with
dt Dt  2 dt 10 recirculation zones.
1 2 2 


− 6πriµ ~vi − ~ui − ri ∇ ~ui




6
d 1 dτ
 
2
− 6πri µ 0
Z
t
dτ
~



6
2 2
vi(τ ) − ~ui(τ ) − ri ∇ ~ui

 s

πν(t − τ )
Conclusion
The trajectories of sediment grains beneath a tidal bore are affected by the type of tidal bores. When
where ~xi is the position of each grain, ~vi the velocity of each grain, mi is the mass of each grain, Vi is the
the gate is closed fully with a low flow velocity Vo = −0.23 m/s, the sediment trajectories form spirals. The
volume of each grain, ρp and ρf are the densities of grains and fluid respectively, mf is the mass of fluid
trajectories are called ribbon-like trajectories. When the gate is closed partially with a high flow velocity
contained in the volume of each grain, ~ui is the flow velocity at the position of each grain, ri is the radius of
Vo = −0.83 m/s, the sediment trajectories form undulations. The trajectories are called undulating ribbon-
each grain, µ and ν are the dynamic and kinematic viscosities respectively. This system of equations is solved
like trajectories. The further work is to characterize the transport of sediment grains beneath a tidal bore by
using the fourth order Runge-Kutta scheme. In the literature, the second equation is called the modified
estimating the dispersion of sediment grains by means of a moment method.
Maxey-Riley equation. The initial form of this equation was given by MAXEY and RILEY in 1983. The
modified Maxey-Riley equation consists of five terms. The first term is the force of gravity and buoyancy.
The second, third and fourth terms are the added mass and the viscous drag. The last term is the history
force that reflects the effect of the settling time of the boundary layer around the grain on its dynamic.
B

R
B