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Effect of sediment transport on flow characteristics in non-prismatic

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DOI: 10.1016/j.asej.2022.101771

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 Ain Shams Engineering Journal 13 (2022) 101771

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Ain Shams Engineering Journal

journal homepage: www.sciencedirect.com

Effect of sediment transport on flow characteristics in non-prismatic

compound channels
Tarek Selim ⇑, Mahmoud Hesham, Mohamed Elkiki
Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Port Said University, Port Said 42523, Egypt

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Sediment transport in open channels and rivers is considered one of the most important and complex
Received 13 October 2021 processes in hydraulic engineering. In this study, we investigated the effect of sediment transport in
Revised 27 February 2022 non-prismatic compound channels on flow characteristics using the Computational Fluid Dynamics
Accepted 11 March 2022
(CFD) software ANSYS-Fluent. Contrary to many previous numerical studies, the momentum exchange
between both primary (water) and secondary (sediment) phases was considered by activating the
Discrete Phase Model (DPM). The aim was thus, to investigate the behavior of particles from a
Keywords:
Lagrangian viewpoint and a discrete perspective. This enabled to monitor the momentum lost or gained
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
Non-prismatic compound channel
by transported sediment particles that were injected in the continuous phase. Moreover, the influence of
Discrete Phase Model (DPM) discrete phase trajectories on the continuum continuous phase was considered. Four sediment particle
Sediment mass discharge sizes 1, 5, 50, and 500 mm and three sediment mass discharges 5.19, 10.38, and 15.56 kg/s were consid-
ered during simulations of the non-prismatic compound channel. Results showed that the stream-wise
velocity of flow deceased along the length of the main channel and floodplain for sediments with small
diameter. No considerable change was noted for larger particles. Sediment mass discharge had a consid-
erable effect on flow velocity. As sediment mass discharge increased, flow velocity decreased. The flow
velocity at the channel outlet was 0.52 and 0.50 m/s corresponding to sediment mass discharge of
5.19 kg/s and 15.56 kg/s, respectively. Results revealed that flow turbulence was attenuated in the pres-
ence of sediments and the degree of attenuation increased with increasing sediment mass discharge in
flow, especially near the free channel surface. Moreover, suspended sediment concentrations were higher
in the presence of gradual enlarged floodplain as compared to the straight one. Maximum concentrations
were 13 and 190 kg/m3 in the gradual enlargement reach for sediment diameter 1 and 5 mm, respectively,
and 4.5 and 170 kg/m3 in the same reach for the prismatic compound channel, respectively. Generally,
and based on the results, it can be concluded that the effect of the secondary sediment phase on the pri-
mary water phase was more pronounced in case of small diameters and high mass discharge of sedi-
ments. In addition, the joint effect of floodplain width enlargement and sediment particle size on
suspended sediment concentration was more pronounced for fine sediments than that for coarser sedi-
ment along the compound channel.
Ó 2022 THE AUTHORS. Published by Elsevier BV on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-
nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction

⇑ Corresponding author. The potentially increased risk posed by more frequent large
E-mail address: eng_tarek_selim@yahoo.com (T. Selim). floods reinforces the need for floodplain subsections in open chan-
Peer review under responsibility of Ain Shams University. nels. As a result, studies on sediment transport in compound chan-
nels have experienced growing interest. Compound channels with
floodplains are widely used especially for irrigation purposes.
There are two major types of compound channels namely, pris-
Production and hosting by Elsevier matic with constant width and non-prismatic with variable width

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2022.101771
2090-4479/Ó 2022 THE AUTHORS. Published by Elsevier BV on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
T. Selim, M. Hesham and M. Elkiki
Nomenclature
The following symbols are used in the current paper:
k kinetic energy of the flow turbulence
e
dissipation rate of the flow turbulence kinetic energy
q
fluid density
lt turbulence eddy viscosity
l molecular fluid viscosity
S scalar monitor related to strain tensor
Sij average rate of strain
v kinematic fluid viscosity
Gk source of kinetic energy of turbulent flow caused by the
velocity gradient effect
Gb source of kinetic energy caused by the buoyancy effect
of the flow
YM contribution of the turbulence fluctuations to the rate of
turbulent dissipation
rk Prandtl number related to turbulent kinetic energy
uj component of flow velocity in a certain direction
Sk source term of turbulent kinetic energy
re Prandtl number related to turbulent dissipation rate
Se source term of turbulent dissipation rate
p static pressure
Ui mean fluid velocity
of the floodplain. According to the nature of the floodplain width,
there are three types of non-prismatic compound channels namely
diverging, converging, and skewed channels [22,23].
The interaction between water and solid particles governs the
sediment transport process due to the momentum exchange
between them and flow turbulence effects. Flow turbulence takes
place by the impact of shear stress caused by kinetic energy of
moving fluid. The complex behavior of turbulent flow in compound
channels causes difficulties in understanding the sediment trans-
port process. The ANSYS-Fluent, Computational Fluid Dynamics
(CFD) software, can overcome this obstacle as it can simulate the
interaction between the primary continuous phase (i.e., water)
and the secondary dispersed phase (i.e., sediment) using the Dis-
crete Phase Model (DPM).
Many researchers (e.g., [22,27,23,30,31]) have used ANSYS-
Fluent software to investigate the flow characteristics in com-
pound channels but without considering the sedimentation effect
on flow properties. Reddy [27] verified the numerical results with
collected experimental data to investigate the effect of the k-e tur-
bulence model on the depth-averaged velocity (DAV) in non-
prismatic compound channels using ANSYS-Fluent. He found that
the k-e model had a good accuracy in predicting the flow velocity
within compound channels. Sahoo et al. [30] compared experimen-
tal results with the ANSYS-Fluent software results regarding the
flow velocity behavior in rectangular channels. A good agreement
between experimental and numerical results was observed with
an error of ±10%. Singh et al. [31] studied the lateral distribution
of DAV and boundary shear stress in trapezoidal channel using a
conveyance estimation software (CES) and ANSYS-Fluent software.
They compared the numerical results of the two software with pre-
conducted experimental results. They concluded that ANSYS-
Fluent has higher precision in simulating flow characteristics as
compared to the CES.
On the other hand, many researchers (e.g.,
[9,10,34,11,35,24,19]) focused their investigations on the effect of
sediment transport on flow characteristics in sedimentation tanks
and rivers. These investigations were either experimental or
numerical using ANSYS-CFX or ANSYS-Fluent. Dissanayake [9]
2
Ain Shams Engineering Journal 13 (2022) 101771
ui instantaneous fluid particle velocity in the stream-wise
flow direction (xi Þ
0
ui  fluctuating component of fluid particle velocity
0 0
ui uj tensor of Reynolds stress
FD fluid drag force
!
u fluid particle velocity

!
up dispersed particle velocity
qp density of dispersed particle
Re Reynolds number of the dispersed particle
CD fluid drag coefficient
dp dispersed particle diameter
!
g gravitational acceleration
dij ; dlk ; and dkl deformation shear tensors
m_p discrete particle mass discharge
Dt time step
z vertical co-ordinate of the flow direction
h main channel flow depth
Subscripts
CFD Computational Fluid Dynamics
DPM Discrete Phase Model
DAV Depth-averaged velocity
used ANSYS-CFX software to study the sediment transport process
in junctions of open channels under different flow and sediment
characteristics. Owing to sediment transport effects, higher water
levels were observed at the upstream side of junctions, but lower
levels were found at the downstream side. Moreover, higher veloc-
ities were recorded at the outer bank. Ebtehaj et al. [10] compared
experimental results of Vongvisessomja et al. [37] with the numer-
ical results of ANSYS-CFX software to investigate the ability of the
software to simulate sediment transport in a sewer pipe. They con-
cluded that ANSYS-CFX software can precisely simulate sediment
transport process in a sewer pipe as flow velocity and sediment
concentration root mean square error was 7.0 and 7.3%, respec-
tively. Tarpagkou and Pantokratoras [34] numerically explored
the effect of increasing sediment diameter and concentration on
the flow velocity in a sedimentation tank using ANSYS-Fluent. It
was deduced that sediment with finer diameter could be in a sus-
pension state more than that of coarser diameter particles. In addi-
tion, high sediment concentrations attenuated the flow turbulence,
especially, near the tank surface. Ekmekci [11] used ANSYS-Fluent
to investigate the effect of sediment diameter on settling particle
velocity in rivers. He found that particles with larger diameter tend
to settle down earlier, in contrary, smaller particles settled later
close to the channel outlet. Tebowei [35] investigated the effect
of sediment transport on flow properties in both curved and hori-
zontal pipes using ANSYS-Fluent. It was observed that sediments
are influenced more by curved than horizontal pipes. Furthermore,
pipe curvature had a significant effect on the flow characteristics.
Bikmukhametov [3] used ANSYS-Fluent to explore the effect of dif-
ferent multiphase flow models on the sediment transport process
in horizontal pipes. These were Eulerian Granular Model and
DPM. It was observed that the Eulerian Granular Model cannot pre-
dict particle sedimentation at the pipe bed. However, the DPM
results gave a good prediction of particles formation within the
pipe, especially, at lower water velocities. Hamza et al. [16] exam-
ined the ability of ANSYS-Fluent to simulate the deposition process
of sediment particles with different diameter around an obstacle
located in a rectangular open channel with an end sill at the outlet.
They validated the ANSYS-Fluent ability by comparing simulations
T. Selim, M. Hesham and M. Elkiki Ain Shams Engineering Journal 13 (2022) 101771

with experimental results of Buil [5] and ONAS [26]. They the realizable k-e turbulence model is more suitable for complex
concluded that ANSYS-Fluent can simulate the sedimentation pro- secondary flow characteristics [1].
cess with a high accuracy. Xiong et al. [38] used ANSYS-Fluent to In the realizable k-e turbulence model, the transport equations
simulate scour and deposition processes around a pier located in for the kinetic energy of the flow turbulence (k) and its dissipation
a riverbed under the effect of suspended sediments. Clear water- rate (eÞ are:
scour and live-bed models were investigated during the simula-   
tion. They found that the live-bed model gave more reliable results @ @   @ lt @k
ðqkÞ þ qkuj ¼ lþ þ Gk þ Gb  qe
in predicting the scour depth as compared to the clear water scour- @t @xj @xj rk @xj
model. Gao and Stenstrom [14] used ANSYS-Fluent to study the  Y M þ Sk ð1Þ
effect of different k-e turbulence models on flow characteristics
in a sedimentation tank. They deduced that the realizable and   
renormalization-group (RNG) k-e model could predict the flow @ @   @ lt @ e
ðqeÞ þ qeuj ¼ lþ þ qC 1 Se  qC 2
capacity 31 and 8% better than the standard k-e model, respec- @t @xj @xj re @xj
tively. Montaseri et al. [24] studied sediment transport process e2 e
 pffiffiffiffiffiffi þ C 1e C 3e Gb þ Se ð2Þ
and bed evolution in a curved channel with lateral intake using k þ ve k
ANSYS-Fluent and compared the model with experimental results.
They examined the effect of using two multiphase flow models qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
(Eulerian and DPM) on channel bed topography. The Eulerian
S¼ 2Sij Sij ð3Þ
model predicted the bed formation more precisely than the DPM
model. However, the DPM model was better in predicting the posi-
2.2.2. Continuous fluid phase
tion of trapped particles on the channel bed as compared to the
By classifying the fluid phase as a continuum and solving the
Eulerian model. Song et al. [32] studied the effect of slurry velocity
Navier-Stokes equations, the mass conservation and momentum
and sediment particle diameter on particles deposition within
equations in case of incompressible and stationary turbulent flow
sewer pipes using ANSYS-Fluent. They concluded that particles
can be expressed by Cartesian vectors:
traveled close to the pipe bed in case of slow slurry velocity and
large diameter of sediment particles. However, particles tended @ui
¼0 ð4Þ
to be suspended more than deposited under the influence of high @xi
slurry velocities for small diameter sediments.    

Although, many researchers used ANSYS-Fluent to simulate @U i 1 @p @ @U i @U j
m
0 0
uj ¼ þ þ  ui uj ð5Þ
water flow in compound channels and simulate sediment trans- @xj q @xi @xj @xj @xi
port in sedimentation tanks or open channels (i.e., rivers and sewer
pipes), sediment transport simulation through compound channels
2.2.3. Solid particle equilibrium forces
has not yet been studied thoroughly. Therefore, the aim of the pre-
ANSYS-Fluent anticipates the trajectory of a dispersed particle
sent study was to investigate the effect of suspended sediment
phase using the interaction of the equilibrium force (i.e., inertia
transport in a non-prismatic compound channel on flow character-
force) with the other exerted forces.
istics using DPM, which is available in the ANSYS-Fluent software.
The governing equation of the equilibrium forces for discrete
The realizable k-e was used as a turbulence model in the current
particle is given by:
study.
!
dup g qp  q !
!
!
¼ F D u  up þ þ F ð6Þ
2. Materials and methods dt qp

2.1. Background: Discrete phase model (DPM) The drag force for solid particle is:

Sediment deposition characteristics in compound channels can 18l C D Re

FD ¼ ð7Þ
be investigated by multiphase flow using Eulerian granular model qp dp 2 24
or DPM approaches. In the DPM approach, the fluid is treated as a
continuum continuous phase, whereas the discrete particle phase where:

qdp
! !
is handled in a natural Lagrangian way, which may or may not
up  u
have a mutual coupling with the carrying fluid momentum in the Re ¼ ð8Þ
flow system. The solution strategy for a discrete phase within the l
continuous phase is that the continuous phase is solved prior to
the presence of the discrete phase, then the discrete phase is pre- 2.2.4. Saffman lift force
sented to calculate the particle trajectories for each discrete phase The lift force on solid particles is caused by the shear effects in
infusion. The continuous phase is recalculated considering the the turbulent flow. This force is more pronounced on sub-micron
momentum interfacial exchange. This solution strategy is repeated particles. The governing equation for the lift force [29,21] is:
stepwise until a converged result is reached, where the continuous
2kv 2 qdij
1
fluid phase and the discrete particle phase are not affected by any ! !
!
F ¼ 1
u  up ð9Þ
additional calculations. qp dp ðdlk dkl Þ 4

2.2. Governing equations 2.2.5. Momentum exchange

2.2.1. Realizable k-e turbulence model
Preliminary studies (e.g., [14]) have revealed that the realizable
k-e turbulence model outperforms other k-e models. In addition,
3
The momentum transport between the continuous fluid phase
and a dispersed solid particle phase is calculated by momentum
lost or gained by the discrete particle as it travels throughout
everywhere in the fluid domain. The following expression is used
T. Selim, M. Hesham and M. Elkiki
to calculate the momentum exchange process between fluid–solid
particles:
! Numerical
X 18lC D Re   Experimental
F¼ up  u þ F other m_ p Dt
24dp qp
2
2.3. Validation model description
The Kantoush et al. [17] experimental data were used to vali-
date the numerical model (ANSYS-Fluent software). They con-
ducted their experiments in a 6 m long, 4 m wide, and 0.2 m
deep sedimentation tank. The same setup dimensions were used
during the validation (simulation) process. The setup contained
an inlet and outlet channel of 1 and 2 m length, respectively. Both
channels had a 0.25 m width (Fig. 1). During simulation, a velocity
inlet boundary condition (BC) was set for the tank inlet, whereas
pressure outlet was set for the outlet. A symmetrical BC was
applied for the free water surface and a no-slip stationary wall
for the bed and sidewalls of the tank. The inlet velocity for both
water and sediment particles was 0.14 m/s. In addition, the sedi-
ment diameter was 50 mm, while the initial sediment mass dis-
charge was 0.028 kg/s. The realizable k-e turbulence model was
used with enhanced wall treatment.
To investigate the effect of mesh cells number on the conver-
gence (stability) of the numerical solution, a mesh dependency
study was conducted (results not shown). Based on this study, a
mesh structure with 420,480 cells was used during the simulation.
2.3.1. Numerical model validation
Fig. 2 shows a comparison between results of the Kantoush
et al. [17] experiment and the ANSYS-Fluent simulation. The com-
parison was done for depth-averaged velocity (DAV) distribution
along the flow domain. The figure shows a good agreement
between experimental and simulation results with a root mean
square error (RMSE) of 0.0274 m/s. The DAV distribution has
approximately the same trend except at the region located near
the tank inlet. The simulated inlet water velocity is lower com-
pared to the one measured by Kantoush et al. [17]. The reason
for this can be attributed to the higher shear stress effect formed
at the intersection area between the inlet channel and the tank
inlet. Higher shear stress occurs because of recirculation eddies
generated by the sudden enlargement between inlet channel and
Fig. 1. Schematic of the numerical 3D sedimentation tank.
Ain Shams Engineering Journal 13 (2022) 101771
0.16
0.14
ð10Þ
0.12
DAV (m/s)
0.1
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Fig. 2. Depth-averaged velocity distribution obtained from ANSYS-Fluent model
compared to Kantoush et al. [17] experiment.
the tank inlet. Moreover, the generated higher shear stress causes
a momentum loss in the water flow in the tank.
Fig. 3 visualizes the streamline velocity contours obtained from
the Kantoush et al. [17] experiment and from the ANSYS-Fluent
simulation. It is noted that the velocity contours for the numerical
simulation have a similar pattern as in the experiment. It is also
observed that there is an asymmetrical pattern for recirculation
eddies formed within the water flow. These eddies move more
towards the right boundary of the tank than to the left boundary.
This asymmetrical pattern can be attributed to the Coanda effect,
which occur when the flow is moving from a narrow opening to
a wider area. These findings concur with the results of Tao et al.
[33]. As ANSYS-Fluent software gives an acceptable agreement
with the experimental results, ANSYS-Fluent was used to investi-
gate the effect of sediment transport on flow characteristics in a
non-prismatic compound open channel.
2.4. Numerical simulation of non-prismatic compound channel
2.4.1. Model description
A non-prismatic compound channel with a total length of 16 m
was considered during the simulation as illustrated in Fig. 4. The
4
T. Selim, M. Hesham and M. Elkiki
Fig. 3. Comparison of streamline velocity contours; a) simulation results using ANSYS-Fluent and b) results of Kantoush et al. [17] experiment.
Fig. 4. Geometry of the non-prismatic compound channel.
channel was divided into three sequential regions, namely,
upstream, transition, and downstream regions with respect to
the channel inlet. The upstream region extended 1 m from the
channel inlet. The bed width of the main channel was 2 m. The
width of the floodplain was 1 m. The length of the transition and
downstream regions was 5 and 10 m, respectively. The width of
each floodplain in the transition section varied from 1 to 2 m with
a slope of 5H: 1V. For all regions, the water depth in the main chan-
nel and floodplain was 1.25 and 0.50 m, respectively. Moreover, the
inner and outer side slopes of the channel were 1:1 and 3:2,
respectively. Depending on the previous dimensions, the top width
of the channel was 7 m for the upstream region and 9 m for the
downstream. It is worth mentioning that this section represents
a typical cross-section for many irrigation channels in Egypt.
To investigate the effect of channel inlet length on flow charac-
teristics, a comparison between 1 and 10 m channel inlet lengths
was conducted. Results of this comparison are explained in details
in section 3.1.
The computational domain used during simulations was com-
posed of 1,476,384 hexahedral cells, as shown in Fig. 5. To ensure
that the solution was mesh-independent, the simulations were
rerun using two different meshes for the computational domain.
The first mesh was coarser with 777,924 hexahedral cells, while
5
Ain Shams Engineering Journal 13 (2022) 101771
the other was finer with 2,502,444 hexahedral cells. To examine
the effect of mesh size on simulation results, DAV at different
positions (x = 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16 m) along the axis of
symmetry of the main channel was compared as shown in Fig. 6.
It was noted that the DAV for different meshes was approximately
similar. Therefore, the selected mesh with 1,476,384 hexahedral
cells did not affect the accuracy of the numerical solution. Mesh
refinement was applied close to the channel bed and sidewalls to
account for the effect of boundary shear layers on the flow
characteristics.
2.4.2. Boundary conditions
A velocity inlet boundary condition (BC) was assigned at the
upstream boundary of the channel. This BC allows for both primary
and secondary phase velocities to be specified along paths normal
to the inlet surface with constant values. A pressure outlet BC was
used at the downstream channel boundary. All stream quantities at
the outlet were inferred from the flow in the inner field by using
this type of BC. A symmetry BC was set at the free water surface.
A stationary wall BC with no-slip shear state was applied to
describe the solid boundaries of bed and sidewalls of the channel.
The imposed BCs were shown in Fig. 5. Additional BCs were set for
the DPM multiphase model. An escape BC was set for both pressure
T. Selim, M. Hesham and M. Elkiki Ain Shams Engineering Journal 13 (2022) 101771

Fig. 5. Computational mesh of the non-prismatic compound channel.

sediment diameters were used by Ekmekci [11]. However, the

Mesh dependency
coarser particles were selected like Tarpagkou and Pantakratoras
0.62
[34] with diameter 50 and 500 mm. For all simulation scenarios,
0.61 used mesh the same initial sediment mass discharge of 5.19 kg/s was injected
coarser from the channel inlet. This value was assumed as it represented
0.6
finer the channel inlet area. The same assumption was used by El Kadi
0.59
DAV (m/s)

and Paquier [12].

0.58
0.57
0.56
0.55
0.54
0.53
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Fig. 6. Depth-averaged velocity along axis of symmetry of the main channel for
different mesh size.
outlet and velocity inlet. A reflect BC was set near the solid bound-
aries. This implies that the particle rebounds off the boundary with
a momentum change assessed by the coefficient of restitution.
Finally, a trap BC was applied for the channel bed. This implies that
the trajectory computations were ended, and the particles’ destina-
tion is noted as trapped when they meet the boundary. The realiz-
able k-e model, which represents one of the k-e turbulence models
incorporated with the ANSYS-Fluent software with enhanced wall
treatment, was used during simulations. The carrier fluid velocity
and the sediment particle velocity normal to the inflow boundary
were set equal to 0.6 m/s. The density of water and sediment were
assumed 998 and 2650 kg/m3 , respectively.
2.4.3. Numerical cases studies
2.4.3.1. Case study (A): Effect of sediment particle size. To investigate
the effect of sediment particle size (secondary phase) on primary
phase (water) characteristics, four sediment sizes corresponding
to four simulation scenarios were considered. These sizes were
classified into fine and coarse particles. For the fine particles, two
sediment diameters of 1 and 5 mm were investigated. The same
6
2.4.3.2. Case study (B): Effect of sediment mass discharge. In this case
study, the impact of increasing sediment mass discharge on water
flow characteristics was investigated. Three initial sediment mass
transport were considered during implementing the scenarios of
this case study. The mass transport was 5.19, 10.38, and
15.56 kg/s for sediment-laden flow cases S1, S2, and S3, respec-
tively. The diameter of sediment particles was assumed constant
and equal to 5 mm. The ratios between sediment mass discharges
for different scenarios were equal those of Muste et al. [25]. There-
fore, three initial sediment mass discharges were considered when
implementing the scenarios of this case study. Seven simulation
scenarios were performed in the two cases studies (Table 1). How-
ever, other scenarios as well were conducted for clear water (i.e.,
water without sediments) to clearly distinguish the effect of sedi-
ment on flow characteristics in non-prismatic compound channels.
2.4.4. Simulation computational procedure
To reach the steady-state flow, continuous water phase was
firstly solved in the apparent lack of sediment particles. The con-
verged solution was defined as the solution with stabilized residu-
als for all variables less than about 10-5. Sediment particles were
then released from the channel inlet and their trajectories were
tracked. Eventually, the continuous phase was revised using the
interfacial momentum exchange as two-way coupled computa-
tions. This procedure was repeated until a converged result was
reached in the primary continuous and secondary discrete phases.
In addition, 500 iterations for continuous phase per DPM iteration
were found to be acceptable for calculations.
T. Selim, M. Hesham and M. Elkiki
Table 1
Simulation scenarios for each case study.
Scenario 1 Scenario 2
Case study (A) Diameter = 1 mm Diameter = 5 mm
Mass discharge = 5.19 kg/s Mass discharge = 5.19 kg/s
Case study Diameter = 5 mm Diameter = 5 mm
(B) Mass discharge = 5.19 kg/s Mass discharge = 10.38 kg/s
1 m-inlet length
0.62
0.61
0.6
Velocity (m/s)
0.59
0.58
0.57
0.56
0.55
0.54
0.53
0 4 8 12
Fig. 7. Stream-wise velocity profiles along the axis of symmetry of the main channel for two channel inlet lengths for the case of clear water.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Effect of channel inlet length on flow characteristics
Fig. 7 shows the stream-wise clear water velocity distribution
along the main channel for two channel simulation scenarios with
two different inlet lengths. These lengths were 1 and 10 m. Results
revealed that there is no effect of the channel inlet length on the
stream-wise flow velocity. For the simulation scenario of 1 m chan-
nel inlet length, the flow velocity was 0.6 m/s at the entrance of the
transition section (x = 1 m). The same flow velocity magnitude was
obtained at the entrance of the transition section within the 10 m
channel inlet length simulation scenario (x = 10 m). Moreover, at
the channel outlet, the flow velocity for the two simulation scenar-
ios was almost the same and equal to 0.545 m/s.
The vertical clear water velocity distributions at the entrance,
middle, and end of the transition section and at the channel outlet
for the two simulation scenarios are shown in Fig. 8. The vertical
axis refers to a depth ratio (z/h). where, z is the vertical co-
ordinate in the flow direction and h is the main channel flow depth.
Results showed that, there is no considerable effect of the channel
inlet length on the vertical flow velocity at different positions along
the compound channel.
3.2. Effect of sediment particle size on flow characteristics
3.2.1. Stream-wise velocity
Fig. 9 shows the stream-wise velocity distribution along the
main channel axis of symmetry for two flow cases. These cases
were clear water and water with sediments of different diameter.
It is noted that the flow velocity distribution curve for clear water
coincided with that for water with sediment particles of 500 mm
diameter. For all cases and at a distance (x) of 6 m from the channel
inlet, the flow velocity patterns are almost the same. However, it
starts to change after this distance until the end of the channel.
The variation in stream-wise velocity distribution pattern is more
Ain Shams Engineering Journal 13 (2022) 101771
Scenario 3 Scenario 4
Diameter = 50 mm Diameter = 500 mm
Mass discharge = 5.19 kg/s Mass discharge = 5.19 kg/s
Diameter = 5 mm _
Mass discharge = 15.56 kg/s
10 m-inlet length
0.62
0.61
0.6
Velocity (m/s)
0.59
0.58
0.57
0.56
0.55
0.54
0.53
16 0 5 10 15 20 25
pronounced in case of 1 and 5 mm particle diameter, especially at
the channel outlet. The velocity at channel outlet is 0.50 and
0.52 m/s for sediment diameter of 1 and 5 mm, respectively. How-
ever, the velocity is almost the same for the other cases and equal
to 0.54 m/s. The reason for this can be attributed to the influence of
sediment particles size. Finer particles with small size are in a sus-
pension within the flow for a longer time. Therefore, they affect the
flow velocity more than coarser particles along the channel length
far from the channel inlet. Moreover, the diffusion rate of small
sized sediment particles plays an important role in reducing water
velocity. In turbulent flow, the centrifugal force effect on the sedi-
ment particles is higher than that on the fluid particles [28]. Thus,
the sediment particles are dislocated beyond the flow turbulence
eddies resulting in an increase in the diffusion rate and mixing
length for these particles, and thereby, the fluid velocity decreases.
Simulation results introduced similar distribution patterns for
stream-wise velocity at the middle depth of the floodplain as
shown in Fig. 10. It is noted that a sediment size of 1 and 5 mm
has a larger effect on the flow velocity than other cases. A mini-
mum velocity of 0.49 m/s is observed in these cases at the channel
outlet, while the minimum velocity is 0.52 m/s for the other cases.
Therefore, it can be concluded that sediment particle size has a
quite large effect on stream-wise velocity gradients in the main
channel as compared to the floodplain. This can be attributed to
the relative depth (dr) effect in compound channels. The dr is
defined as the ratio between the floodplain to main channel
depths. Yonesi et al. [39] studied the effect of relative depth on
the velocity gradient in non-prismatic diverging compound chan-
nels up to ratios of 0.35. They concluded that, as the relative depth
increases, the velocity gradient between the main channel and
floodplain decreases. The relative depth was 0.4 in the current
study, and the velocity gradient between the floodplain was rela-
tively small as compared to that in the main channel. Therefore,
the same trend of stream-wise velocity curves is observed in the
floodplain as compared to that in the main channel.
7
T. Selim, M. Hesham and M. Elkiki Ain Shams Engineering Journal 13 (2022) 101771

Entrance Middle
1 1

0.8 0.8

0.6 0.6

z/h
z/h

0.4 0.4

0.2 0.2

0 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Velocity (m/s) Velocity (m/s)

End Channel outlet

1 1

0.8 0.8

0.6 0.6
z/h

z/h

0.4 0.4

0.2 0.2

0 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6

Fig. 8. Vertical velocity profiles at different positions along the main channel for two cases of channel inlet lengths.

Main channel Floodplain

0.62 0.62
cw cw
0.6 0.6
1 μm 1 μm
0.58 5 μm 5 μm
Velocity (m/s)

0.58
Velocity (m/s)

50 μm 50 μm
0.56 500 μm 0.56 500 μm

0.54 0.54
0.52 0.52
0.5 0.5
0.48
0.48
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
X (m)
Fig. 9. Stream-wise velocity profiles along the axis of symmetry of the main
Fig. 10. Stream-wise velocity profiles along the floodplain for different flow cases.
channel for different flow cases.

3.2.2. Vertical velocity cases. These cases were clear water and water with sediments of 1,
Fig. 11 shows the vertical velocity distribution over the main 5, 50, and 500 mm diameter. It is noted that all graphs are similar
channel depth at different positions (x = 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16 m) until x = 8 m including the transition (i.e., gradual enlargement)
along the plane of symmetry of the main channel for different flow reach of the compound channel. Then, the behavior is changed till

8
T. Selim, M. Hesham and M. Elkiki Ain Shams Engineering Journal 13 (2022) 101771

X=8m
1

0.8 cw
z/h
0.6 1 μm
5 μm
0.4
50 μm
0.2 500 μm
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Velocity (m/s)

X = 10 m X = 12 m
1 1

0.8 0.8

0.6 0.6
z/h
z/h

0.4 0.4

0.2 0.2

0 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Velocity (m/s) Velocity (m/s)

X = 14 m X = 16 m
1 1

0.8 0.8

0.6 0.6
z/h

z/h

0.4 0.4

0.2 0.2

0 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Velocity (m/s) Velocity (m/s)
Fig. 11. Vertical velocity profiles at different positions (x) along the main channel for different flow cases.

the channel outlet. At position x = 10 m, it is noted that the velocity
profiles for clear water and water with sediments of 50 and 500 mm
diameter are similar along the channel depth except below the
depth ratio of z/h = 0.4. However, the velocity profiles for the cases
of 1 and 5 mm sediment diameter diverged from other profiles
throughout the main channel depth, especially near the channel
outlet. The maximum velocity at x = 14 m for cases of water with
sediments of 1 and 5 mm diameter was 0.51 m/s and this occurred
at a depth ratio z/h = 0.64 : It was 0.54 m/s for other cases and most
depths. The maximum variation between velocity profiles was
observed at the channel outlet (x = 16 m), especially at the free
water surface.

9
T. Selim, M. Hesham and M. Elkiki
X = 16 m
1.25
50 μm
100 μm
1
0.75
Z (m)
0.5
0.25
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Velocity (m/s)
Fig. 12. Comparison of vertical flow velocity profiles at channel outlet (x = 16 m)
along the main channel for 50 and 100 lm sized particles.
The change in vertical flow velocity profile at different locations
can be attributed to the variation in the cross-sectional area of the
compound channel. Another reason is the effect of Stokes number,
which can enhance or attenuate the intensity of flow turbulence
structures. Stokes number is defined as the ratio of the response
time for sediment particles to the flow turbulence timescale [6].
Best et al. [2] deduced that sediment particles with small Stokes
number can attenuate the flow turbulence and reduce the flow
velocity. Coleman [7] studied the effect of Stokes number of differ-
ent particle size on the vertical flow velocity. He concluded that
small sediment diameter with small Stokes number can reduce
the flow velocity as compared to larger particles, especially, at
regions far from the channel bed. In addition, particles of small size
were found to be in a suspension longer than larger particles. Lar-
ger particles were deposited at depths near the channel bed. There-
fore, small particles affect the velocity distribution pattern at most
depths within the channel.
As shown in Fig. 11, the vertical flow velocity decreases near the
channel bed region (below a depth ratio of z/h = 0.4), especially
near the channel outlet in the case of 50 lm size particles. This
can be attributed to the higher deposition rate of sediment parti-
cles near the channel bed in case of larger sediment particles of
50 lm diameter as compared to finer particles of 1 and 5 lm diam-
eters. This depends on the effect of gravity force on larger particles.
Gravity force augments the tendency of these particles to be
trapped at most depths near the channel bed. Therefore, the verti-
cal flow velocity is strongly affected by the presence of 50 lm par-
ticles, especially in near-bed regions of the compound channel. As
the sediment particles size increases to 500 lm, the impact of
gravity force on the rapid deposition process at near-bed regions
increases. Then, these particles are rapidly trapped as they are
injected from the channel inlet without any effect on the flow
velocity. As a result, the effect of particles with 500 lm diameter
on decreasing the vertical flow velocity at most depths of the main
channel is not substantial.
To investigate the effect of particle diameter between 50 and
500 lm on vertical flow velocity distribution profiles, a simulation
with sediment particle size of 100 lm was conducted. Fig. 12
shows a comparison between the vertical velocity distribution pro-
files at the channel outlet (x = 16 m) for both sediment particles
sizes (50 and 100 lm). It is noted that both sediment particle sizes
have the same effect on decreasing vertical velocity at most depths
near the channel bed. Therefore, it can be concluded that the effect
of medium size of sediment particles has a great impact on vertical
flow velocity in near-bed regions as compared to finer and coarser
sediment particles.
10
Ain Shams Engineering Journal 13 (2022) 101771
Fig. 13 shows similar vertical velocity distribution patterns
along the floodplain of the compound channel as observed along
the main channel for different sediment particle sizes of 1, 5, 50,
and 500 lm. It is clear that small sediment diameters (1 and
5 mm) have more marked influence on the flow velocity than other
diameters. All velocity profiles are similar until position x = 12 m.
The effect of small particle diameter on flow velocity is more pro-
nounced at the free channel water surface near the floodplain out-
let (x = 16 m). At this location, the flow velocity is 0.48 and 0.5 m/s
for 1 and 5 mm sediment diameters, respectively. However, the
flow velocity is 0.52 m/s for other flow cases. As mentioned before,
Stokes number and suspension state of sediment particles govern
the vertical flow velocity patterns. Moreover, the relative depth
between the main channel and floodplain affects the velocity gra-
dient between them.
3.2.3. Suspended sediment concentration
An initial sediment mass discharge of 5.19 kg/s was selected at
the channel inlet during simulation to clearly display the effect of
sediment particles diameter on the suspended sediment concen-
tration. Fig. 14 shows the suspended sediment concentration dis-
tribution along the axis of symmetry for the main channel bed
and along the half width of the floodplain bed for different sedi-
ment diameters. It is seen that the maximum suspended sediment
concentration occurs at the inlet of the main channel and flood-
plain. The concentrations are 3.35 and 3.85 kg/m3 for the main
channel and floodplain, respectively. The diameter of sediment
particles corresponding to these concentrations is 1 mm. The min-
imum concentration at the inlet is approximately the same for
both main channel and floodplain equal to 0.7 kg/m3. This concen-
tration occurs under the effect of 500 mm particles diameter. As the
weight of sediment particles increases, the opportunity for rapid
deposition of these particles near the channel bed increases. The
simulation results reveal that suspended sediment concentration
fluctuations are more pronounced for sediment diameters of 1, 5,
and 50 mm. However, in case of 500 mm sediment diameter, these
fluctuations are limited near the channel inlet. This occurs because
of lift force on sediment particles and the interaction with gravity.
Due to the lower weight of small particle size (d = 1, 5, and 50 mm),
the effect of lift force on these particles is more pronounced than
the gravity force. Therefore, small sediment particles can be found
in a suspension during longer time and distance. On the other
hand, for sediment particles of greater weight (d = 500 mm), the
gravity force dominates. Therefore, these particles deposit rapidly
near the channel inlet for the main channel and flood plain, respec-
tively. This result concurs with the findings of Tarpagkou and Pan-
tokratoras [34].
3.3. Effect of sediment mass discharge on flow characteristics
3.3.1. Stream-wise velocity
Fig. 15 illustrates the effect of increasing sediment mass dis-
charge for stream-wise flow velocity along the axis of symmetry
in the main channel. Simulation results of cases S1, S2, and S3 are
compared with results for the clear water case. For all simulation
scenarios, it is observed that the water flow velocity with sedi-
ments is lower than that of clear water. This can be attributed to
the effect of the momentum exchange processes between water
and sediment particles. In sediment-laden flows, suspended sedi-
ment particles extract energy from the flow causing a reduction
in water velocity. This finding concurs with that of Muste et al.
[25]. Simulation results show a proportional decrease in water
velocity with increase in sediment mass discharge. At the channel
outlet (x = 16 m), the water flow velocity is 0.54 and 0.52 m/s for
clear water and S1, respectively. However, for the other two cases
S2 and S3, the flow velocity is approximately equal to 0.50 m/s.
T. Selim, M. Hesham and M. Elkiki Ain Shams Engineering Journal 13 (2022) 101771

X=8m
1

0.9 cw
z/h
1 μm
0.8 5 μm
50 μm
0.7
500 μm
0.6
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Velocity (m/s)

X = 10 m X = 12 m
1 1

0.9 0.9
z/h

z/h

0.8 0.8

0.7 0.7

0.6 0.6
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Velocity (m/s) Velocity (m/s)

X = 14 m X = 16 m
1 1

0.9 0.9
z/h

z/h

0.8 0.8

0.7 0.7

0.6 0.6
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Velocity (m/s) Velocity (m/s)
Fig. 13. Vertical velocity profiles at different positions (x) along the floodplain for different flow cases.

The gradual reduction in stream-wise water velocity of sediment-
laden flow can be attributed to the interaction between suspended
sediment particles and the flow turbulence structures within the
flow. As sediment concentration increases in the flow, the friction
velocity increases. Therefore, a slow gradual lag in the water veloc-
ity profiles can be noted [20]. The same trend of stream-wise veloc-
ity is observed in the floodplain (not shown).
3.3.2. Lateral flow velocity and suspended sediment concentration
distribution
The effect of increasing sediment mass discharge on the lateral
velocity distribution for different flow cases is displayed in Fig. 16.
The figure shows a gradual increase in lateral velocity for the clear
water case from the floodplain boundary to the middle of the main
channel at different sections along the channel. As the stream-wise

11
T. Selim, M. Hesham and M. Elkiki Ain Shams Engineering Journal 13 (2022) 101771

a) Main channel b) Floodplain

Sediment Concentration (kg/m3)

Sediment Concentration (kg/m3)

4 4
3.6 3.6
3.2 3.2
2.8 2.8
2.4 2.4
2 2
1.6 1.6
1.2 1.2
0.8 0.8
0.4 0.4
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
X (m) X (m)

Fig. 14. Suspended sediment concentration distribution for different flow cases; a) along the axis of symmetry of the main channel bed and b) along the half-width of
floodplain bed.

plain boundary is 0.42 m/s. The increasing flow velocity in the mid-
Main channel
dle of the main channel and the decreasing velocity at the
0.62
floodplain boundary is noticed until the channel outlet
cw
0.6 (x = 16 m). The reason for higher flow velocity in the main channel
S1
S2 compared to that in the floodplain for clear water case can be
0.58
Velocity (m/s)

S3 attributed to larger water depth in the main channel that causes

0.56
0.54
0.52
0.5
0.48
0 2
Fig. 15. Stream-wise velocity distribution along the main channel for cases of clear
water, S1, S2, and S3.
and vertical velocity curves are the same along the first 8 m length
of the channel including the transition reach, the lateral velocity
distribution curves for all flow cases coincide along this reach.
For the clear water case at position x = 10 m, the lateral flow veloc-
ity in the middle of the main channel at depth z = 1 m from the
channel bed is 0.54 m/s. However, the flow velocity at the flood-
an augment in flow velocity due to less friction.
By adding sediment to the flow, it can be observed that the flow
velocity increases in the floodplain as suspended sediment concen-
tration increases. The increased sediment concentration in the
floodplain is shown in Fig. 17. At the floodplain boundary, the flow
velocity is 0.539, 0.545, and 0.547 m/s corresponding to a sediment
concentration 3.3, 8.4, and 9.9 kg/m3, respectively. As suspended
sediment concentration increases in the floodplain, larger momen-
4 6 8 10 12 14 16 tum and potential energy are transferred from the main channel to
X (m) the floodplain. Due to the velocity gradient between the main
channel and floodplain, a shear layer is generated at the interface
between them. This layer results in large turbulent flow structures,
and momentum is transferred from the main channel to the flood-
plain [4]. Therefore, the water velocity increases in the floodplain
in the presence of sediments, while it decreases within the main
channel. The phenomenon of increasing water velocity in regions
of high sediment concentration has been observed in previous
studies (e.g., [36,15,18]). In addition, the reason for the increased
sediment concentrations in the floodplain compared to those in
the main channel (as observed in Fig. 14) may be attributed to

X = 10 m X = 14 m X = 16 m
0.56 0.56 0.56
0.54 0.54 0.54
0.52 0.52 0.52
Velocity (m/s)
Velocity (m/s)

Velocity (m/s)

0.5 0.5 0.5

0.48 0.48 0.48
0.46 0.46 0.46
0.44 0.44 0.44
0.42 0.42 0.42
0.4 0.4 0.4
-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5
Y (m) Y (m) Y (m)
Fig. 16. Lateral velocity distribution within the compound channel cross-section for different flow cases.

12
T. Selim, M. Hesham and M. Elkiki Ain Shams Engineering Journal 13 (2022) 101771

X = 10 m X = 14 m X = 16 m
Sediment concentration (kg/m3)

Sediment concentration (kg/m3)

Sediment concentration (kg/m3)

14 14 14

12 12 12

10 10 10
8 8 8
6 6 6
4 4 4
2 2 2
0 0 0
-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5
Y (m) Y (m) Y (m)
Fig. 17. Lateral suspended sediment concentration distribution within the compound channel cross-section for different flow cases.

the effect of velocity gradient between the two subsections. The floodplain due to the velocity difference between them was
increased lateral sediment transfer from the main channel to the reported by [13].

Fig. 18. Contours of flow turbulent eddy viscosity for cases of clear water, S1, S2, and S3.

13
T. Selim, M. Hesham and M. Elkiki Ain Shams Engineering Journal 13 (2022) 101771

3.3.3. Flow turbulence modulation middle of the free channel surface, where the flow velocity is the
Turbulence modulation is defined as the change in turbulence maximum. The damping of the flow turbulence intensity is attrib-
characteristics of clear water by adding sediment particles to the uted to the effect of Stokes number for suspended particles. As
flow. Fig. 18 visualizes contours of turbulence eddy viscosity pat- Stokes number of suspended sediments increases, the dampening
terns at the free channel surface for different sediment-laden flow tendency of the flow turbulence intensity increases [18].
cases in comparison with the clear water case. The flow turbulence Fig. 19 shows the effect of increasing sediment mass discharge
intensity is attenuated by adding suspended sediment particles to on turbulence eddy viscosity of the flow. The figure reveals the ver-
the clear water. The degree of attenuation increases by increasing tical distribution of turbulence eddy viscosity throughout the main
sediment mass discharge. This finding is more pronounced in the channel depth at x = 14 m. It is noted that, as the sediment mass
discharge increases, the eddy viscosity for the flow turbulence
decreases, especially in regions near the free water surface (z/
X = 14 m h > 0.26). However, for near-bed regions (z/h < 0.26), the flow eddy
1 viscosity in different flow cases is approximately the same without
cw considerable change. This is due to the effect of diffusion rates for
0.8 S1 the turbulent momentum of water particles and suspended sedi-
S2 ment particles. In the near-bed region, sediment particles tend to
S3 settle resulting in an enhancement of the flow turbulent eddy vis-
0.6 cosity. Thus, the diffusion rate for water particles increases. How-
z/h

ever, in the region near the free surface of the channel, the
0.4 diffusion rate of suspended sediment particles is higher than that
of the water particles. Thus, the turbulent eddy viscosity is reduced
and this reduction increased with increasing sediment concentra-
0.2
tion in the flow. This result agrees with the findings of Muste
et al. [25].
0
0 0.4 0.8 1.2 1.6 2 2.4 3.4. Joint effect of floodplain gradual enlargement and sediment
Eddy viscosity (Pa.s) particle size on suspended sediment concentration

Fig. 19. Vertical distribution of eddy viscosity throughout the main channel depth
To study the joint effect of floodplain gradual enlargement and
for the case of clear water, S1, S2, and S3.
sediment particle size on the sediment concentration of suspended

Fig. 20. Suspended fine sediment concentration distribution over the main channel and floodplain bed; a) Non-prismatic compound channel (left) and b) Prismatic
compound channel (right).

14
T. Selim, M. Hesham and M. Elkiki
Fig. 21. Suspended coarse sediment concentration distribution over the main channel and floodplain bed; a) Non-prismatic compound channel (left) and b) Prismatic
compound channel (right).
particles, a comparison between prismatic and non-prismatic com-
pound channels was conducted. The prismatic channel cross-
section has the same dimensions as the non-prismatic channel
inlet except for the width of the floodplain. The width of the
straight floodplain for the prismatic channel was selected as the
average of the inlet and outlet floodplain widths of the non-
prismatic compound channel. Thus, the floodplain width of the
prismatic channel was set equal to 1.5 m. The procedure used for
estimating the floodplain width of prismatic channel is similar to
that of Das et al. [8]. Two sediment particle size diameters of 1
and 500 mm were used in the comparison. These diameters repre-
sent fine and coarse sediments, respectively. The initial sediment
mass discharge was 5.19 kg/s for all flow cases. Fig. 20a & b visu-
alize suspended sediment concentration distribution for fine sedi-
ment particles with diameter 1 mm over the main channel and
floodplain bed. It can be observed that sediment concentration
over the non-prismatic compound channel is clearly higher than
that within the prismatic channel along the main channel and
floodplain. The maximum suspended sediment concentration
obtained (at position x = 6 m) in the gradual enlarged floodplain
reach is 13 kg/m3. However, it is 4.5 kg/m3 within the same loca-
tion for the straight channel. This is due to the gradual floodplain
enlargement. As the floodplain width increases along the channel
length, the flow velocity within the channel decreases causing an
increase in sediment concentration.
The same observation of higher suspended sediment concentra-
tions within the non-prismatic channel as compared to the pris-
matic one is made for coarse sediment particles with diameter
500 mm. The maximum suspended concentrations (at position
x = 1 m) are 190 and 170 kg/m3 in the gradual enlarged and
15
Ain Shams Engineering Journal 13 (2022) 101771
straight floodplain regions, respectively. By comparing the sedi-
ment concentration obtained from the two cases of sediment
diameters, it can be seen that the maximum concentration noted
at the end of the gradual enlargement reach is a result of the case
of sediment diameter equal to 1 mm. The maximum concentration
corresponding to the sediment diameter of 500 mm was obtained at
the inlet of the gradual enlargement region. Moreover, the fluctu-
ation of sediment concentrations disappeared over the channel
length until the channel outlet in case of large sediment diameter
as compared to smaller diameters. This is attributed to larger grav-
ity force that exceeds the lift force exerted on coarse sediment par-
ticles. These sediments particles are rapidly trapped after some
distance from the channel inlet (Fig. 21 a & b).
4. Conclusions
This study investigated the effect of momentum exchange
between water and sediment particles for suspended sediment
transport processes in a non-prismatic compound channel. More-
over, the joint effect of floodplain gradual enlargement and sedi-
ment particle size on suspended sediment concentration was
explored. A Discrete Phase Model (DPM) was used to simulate
the momentum exchange between water and sediment particles
where the multiphase model is available in the ANSYS-Fluent soft-
ware. Two case studies for sediment particle influence on the flow
characteristics for different sediment-laden flow scenarios were
investigated. These cases were presented by considering different
sediment particles sizes and sediment mass discharges.
Based on the study results, the following conclusions can be
drawn:
T. Selim, M. Hesham and M. Elkiki
1- The impact of sediment particles size on decreasing the
stream-wise and vertical flow velocities in a non-prismatic
compound channel with gradually enlargement floodplain
is more pronounced in the case of fine sediments. Coarse
sediment particles did not have any considerable effect on
decreasing the flow velocity in different flow directions.
2- Medium sized particles distorted the vertical distribution
curve of flow velocity along the main channel and floodplain
depths, specifically near the bed.
3- The distribution of sediment particles along the beds of both
main channel and floodplain is greatly affected by sediment
particle size. As the sediment particle size increases, the sed-
iments concentration distribution tends to the non-
uniformity.
4- Momentum exchange between water and sediment particles
substantially affected the stream-wise flow velocity. As the
injected sediment mass discharge increases, the stream-
wise flow velocity along the main channel and floodplain
decreases.
5- Sediment mass discharge has a distinct effect on the lateral
flow velocity and sediment concentration in the floodplain
subsection. As the sediment mass discharge increases, the
lateral flow velocity and sediment concentration increase.
6- The Discrete Phase Model (DPM) incorporated in the ANSYS-
Fluent software is considered as an effective tool for investi-
gating the flow characteristics in a non-prismatic compound
channel with gradually enlargement floodplain under differ-
ent sediment particle size and sediment mass discharge.
Future research is suggested to include the investigation of the
combined effect of the floodplain divergence angle and sediment
particle size on flow characteristics in non-prismatic diverging
compound channels.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgment
We would like to acknowledge Prof. Ronny Berndtsson (Divi-
sion of Water Resources Engineering, Lund University, box 118,
SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden) for his technical advice and linguistic
corrections of the manuscript. The authors are grateful to the jour-
nal editor and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive
comments and suggestions for improving the manuscript quality.
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