Numerical Simulation of Saline Intrusion and Purging in Long SeaOutfalls with Three-Dimensional Model

Saline intrusion into marine sewage ouffalls will greatly decrease the efficiency of sewage disposal. In order to investigate the mechanisms of this flow, in this paper, a three-dimensional numerical model based on FVM （Finite Volume Method） is established, The RNG κ-ε model is selected for turbulence modeling. The time-averaged vohtme fraction equations are introduced to simulate the stratification and inteffaeial exchange of sewage and seawater in outfalls. Validity of the established three-dimensional numerical model is evaluated by comparisons of numerical results with experimental data. With this three-dimensional numerical model, the internal flow characteristics in ouffalls for different sewage discharges are simulated. The results indicate that for a low sewage discharge, saline circulates in the outfall due to intrusion and both the inflowing momentum and the inteffaeial turbulent mixing are important mechanisms to extrude the saline. For a high sewage discharge, saline intrusion could be avoided. The inflow momentum is the main mechanism to extrude the saline and the inteffacial turbulent mixing is nut important relatively. Even at a high sewage discharge, the saline wedge would be retained in the main ouffall pipe after the risers are purged. It takes a long time for this saline wedge to be extruded by interracial turbulent mixing.