Impact of backwater on water surface profile in curved channels

Owing to extensive construction of dams, the impact of backwater on flow may lead to navigation or flood control issues in curved channels. To date, the impact of backwater on the water surface profile in curved channels remains unknown and requires investigation. In this study, experiments were conducted in a glass-walled recirculating flume with a length of 19.4 m, a width of 0.6 m, and a depth of 0.8 m, and the impact of backwater on the water surface profile in a 90° channel bend was investigated. The experimental results showed that the backwater degree had a significant impact on the transverse and longitudinal flow depth distributions in the bend. The transverse slope of the flow (Jr) increased linearly with an increase in the Froude number of the approach flow upstream of the bend. Jr increased with the longitudinal location parameter ξ when −0.2 < ξ < 0.5, and decreased with ξ when 0.5 < ξ < 1.2. Furthermore, the results showed that Jr asymptotically decreased to zero with an increase in the degree of backwater. An equation was formulated to estimate the transverse slope of the flow in a 90° bend in backwater zones.

Influence of deflection angles on flow behaviours in openchannel bends

The deflection angle of a river bend plays an important role on behaviours of the flow within it, and a clear understanding of the angle's influence is significant in both theoretical study and engineering application. This paper presents a systematic numerical investigation on effects of deflection angles(30°, 60°, 90°, 120°, 150°, and 180°) on flow phenomena and their evolution in open-channel bends using a Re-Normalization Group(RNG) κ-ε model and a volume of fluid(VOF) method. The numerical results indicate that the deflection angle is a key factor for flows in bends. It is shown that the maximum transverse slope of water surface occurs at the middle cross section of a bend, and it increases with the deflection angle. Besides a major vortex, or, the primary circulation cell near the channel bottom, a secondary vortex, or, an outer bank cell, may also appear above the former and near the outer bank when the deflection angle is sufficiently large, and it will gradually migrate towards the inner bank and evolve into an inner bank cell. The strength of the secondary circulations increases with the deflection angle. The simulation demonstrates that there is alow-stress zone on the bed near the outer bank and a high-stress zone on the bed near the inner bank, and both of them increase in size with the deflection angle. The maximum of shear stress on the inner bank increases nonlinearly with the angle, and its maximums on the outer bank and on the bed take place when the deflection angle becomes 120°.

Influence of rainfall on skid resistance performance and driving safety conditions of asphalt pavements

To study the influence of rainfall on pavement skid-resistance performance and driving safety,the water film thickness(WFT)concept considering the longitudinal and transverse slopes of the pavement was utilized based on the total discharge formulation and turbulence theory of slope flow.Using experimental data measured using the British pendulum test under varying WFT levels,a model for calculating the skid resistance,namely the British pendulum number(BPN),was formulated and used to quantitatively evaluate the effects of rainfall intensity,transverse,and longitudinal slopes on the computed BPN.The study results reveal that skid resistance is linearly proportional to the pavement transverse slope and inversely proportional to the rainfall intensity and the pavement longitudinal slope.In particular,rainfall intensity,along with pavement texture depth,exhibited a significant impact on the tire-pavement friction and skid-resistance performance.The results further indicate that driving safety under wet weather is predominantly governed by skid resistance and visibility.The BPN and sideway force coefficient(SFC60)values for new asphalt pavements under different rainfall intensities are provided along with some modification to the stopping sight distance(SSD)criteria.Safe driving speed limits are also determined using a safe-driving model to develop the appropriate speed limit strategies.The overall study results provide some insights,methodology approach,and reference data for the evaluation of pavement skid-resistance performance and driving safety conditions under different pavement slopes and rainfall intensities.