A Combined O/U-Tube Oscillatory Water Tunnel for Fluid Flow and Sediment Transport Studies: The Hydrodynamics and Genetic Algorithm

Abstract

This study proposes an oscillatory water tunnel (O/U-tube) equipped with two impellers to drive flows. The O/U-tube consists of two modes: U-tube mode and O-tube mode. The former can generate oscillatory flow, while the latter can produce both oscillatory and unidirectional flows with velocities up to 1.6 m/s. The hydrodynamics of the U-tube and O-tube modes were examined analytically. For the U-tube mode, a sine-varying rotational speed for the impeller caused higher harmonic components for the velocity, owing to the local inertia and gravity forces. In the steady state of the O-tube mode, owing to the resistance force, the flow velocity was proportional to the rotational speed. To generate the target flow conditions, two open-loop control schemes were proposed according to the analytic approach for the U-tube mode and a genetic algorithm for the O-tube mode. The analytic approach was based on a hydrodynamic model with a given flow condition. In the genetic algorithm, the rotational speed was represented by a square root of the Fourier series. The optimal coefficients of the Fourier series to generate the target flow were determined by using the genetic algorithm and the hydrodynamic model. Both approaches were experimentally validated. Consequently, the O/U-tube with the open-loop schemes can be used to generate the desired oscillatory and unidirectional flows.