A study on the dynamic characteristics of surface suction vortices in an open inlet pool

Abstract

The surface suction vortices in the open pump intakes were systematically investigated by using numerical and experimental methods. A 3D open inlet pool model has been applied to numerically simulate the flow pattern in the sump based on the shear stress transfer k–ω model, and the volume of fluid method was used to analyze flow fluctuations in the free surface in order to capture and identify the developing status and the evolution process of surface suction vortices as well. The results show that the surface suction vortices easily occur at large flow rates, and the suction ability of these vortices has a positive linear relationship with the flow rate, submerged depth, and the Froude constant. Moreover, it can be observed that the extended direction of the dynamic vorticity is determined by the vortex component along the Z axis (ωz), which played a major role in the stretching effect during the vortex deformation.