Time fractional advection-dispersion model to study transportation of particles with time-memory for unsteady nonequilibrium suspension in open-channel turbulent flows

Abstract

Abstract In this study, the effects of time-memory on the mixing and nonequilibrium transportation of particles in an unsteady turbulent flow are investigated. The memory effect of particles is captured through a time-fractional advection-dispersion equation rather than a traditional advection-dispersion equation. The time-fractional derivative is considered in Caputo sense which includes a power-law memory kernel that captures the power-law jumps of particles. The time-fractional model is solved using the Chebyshev collocation method. To make the solution procedure more robust three different kinds of Chebyshev polynomials are considered. The time-fractional derivative is approximated using the finite difference method at small time intervals and numerical solutions are obtained in terms of Chebyshev polynomials. The model solutions are compared with existing experimental data of traditional conditions and satisfactory results are obtained. Apart from this, the effects of time-memory are analyzed for bottom concentration and transient concentration distribution of particles. The results show that for uniform initial conditions, bottom concentration increases with time as the order of fractional derivative decreases. In the case of transient concentration, the value of concentration initially decreases when T < 1 and thereafter increases throughout the flow depth. The effects of time-memory are also analyzed under steady flow conditions. Results show that under steady conditions, transient concentration is more sensitive for linear, parabolic, and parabolic-constant models of sediment diffusivity rather than the constant model.