Experimental measurements of macro-particle dispersion in grid turbulence and application to a stochastic numerical model for solid body turbulent diffusion

Abstract

The transport of solid bodies (e.g. algae, debris or sediment grains) along a coastline is a necessary consideration for the sustainable management of beaches and coasts, including any structure built along the shoreline. The use of a stochastic transport model allows to take into consideration a wide scale of physical processes, such as the current around a coastal structure, the turbulence generated by the flow and the effects of inertia and drag of each body. In order to validate the developed model, in view of industrial applications, a set of experiments was performed. The objective of the experiments was to validate to numerical model in isotropic turbulence. The experiment consisted of oscillating grid generated turbulence, inside which spherical particles were released. Measurements were done using PIV to quantify the turbulence and video particle tracking to measure displacement. The experimental result were then compared to various numerical simulations. © 2011 WIT Press.