Assessment of CFD Model Performance for Flows around a Hydraulic Structure of Complex Geometry

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling has become a widely used research tool in the hydraulic engineering community, however, for many problems the numerical model setup and even the selection of the suitable hydrodynamic solver is still a challenging task. This is the case for fine scale analysis of flow features around hydraulic structures of complex geometry, where generation of the 3D grid, application of the correct turbulence modeling approach, or modeling of the free surface all require extensive experience and knowledge. The aim of this paper is to perform a numerical hydrodynamic experiment for a hydraulic structure with complex geometry to assess the model performance, in terms of grid resolution, grid refinement methods as well as turbulence modeling. The open source modeling environment of OpenFOAM is tested and validated against laboratory measurements, moreover, practical recommendations are made for future applications of the numerical solver.