Numerical modelling of meandering jets in shallow rectangular reservoir using two different turbulent closures

In this article, the shallow water equations are used to model meandering flows in shallow rectangular reservoir.Two distinct meandering flows in termof friction regimewere modelled (frictional and nonfrictional) and two turbulent closures were tested with various values for their tuning parameters. One turbulent closure accounts for both the 2D horizontal (k-ε) and 3D vertical (algebraic model) turbulent mixing, while the second turbulent closure accounts for the unresolved scales of the shallow water equations through a subgridscale model (Smagorinsky). The purpose here is to give advices on which turbulent closure is the most likely appropriate for modelling meandering flows. A Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) is performed on the simulation results for extracting objective parameters accounting for transient behaviors and to be compared with experiments. Comparisons between models and with experiments indicate a great dependence of the simulation results to the modelling of the small scales of the turbulence. © 2016 Taylor & Francis Group, London.