Boundary conditions on free water surface
 

Hi everybody

I am modeling water flow around an object in a flume tank. (Basically a circulating water tank open to the air at the test section). I am using simpleFoam.

I am not quite sure how to model the free surface. So far zero gradient for pressure and slip condition for velocity have been used (U_normal=0 and zero gradient parallel to the surface). The turbulence parameters have also been given slip boundary conditions. Does anyone have an idea of what is correct in this situation?

Any help is appreciated :)

Per

I am far from an expert on turbulence modelling, but I guess you would need to switch to the interFoam solver if you wish to capture the free surface (and its motion) correctly.

Thanks for the reply.

The velocity (of the uniform water current field) is so small that there will be no significant water elevation (as observed from physical experiments done of the exact same case I am modeling). Therefor I am only interested in boundary conditions that give the correct (or near enough) velocity profile and pressure near and at the free surface. I do not want to introduce unphysical constraints on the flow due to incorrect water surface modeling.

Per

No good solution.

Free slip (or rigid lid) kills vertical fluctuation of turbulence. It also distorts the distribution of other flow variables.

Well, ok. That's not good. Do you have any suggestion for how I can model the water surface? That is the correct velocities and pressure. I need to use a turbulence model. My Reynolds number is in the order of magnitude 3e5.

Per