Bubble curtains in a lock-exchange flow: the importance of transient dynamics in the curtain-driven regime

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Raaghav, Shravan K. R., Driessen, Ronald J. A., O'Mahoney, Tom S. D., Uittenbogaard, Rob E., Clercx, Herman J. H., Duran-Matute, Matias
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Raaghav, Shravan K. R.
Driessen, Ronald J. A.
O'Mahoney, Tom S. D.
Uittenbogaard, Rob E.
Clercx, Herman J. H.
Duran-Matute, Matias
author_facet Raaghav, Shravan K. R.
Driessen, Ronald J. A.
O'Mahoney, Tom S. D.
Uittenbogaard, Rob E.
Clercx, Herman J. H.
Duran-Matute, Matias
contents Bubble curtains are line bubble plumes that are used to mitigate saltwater intrusion in shipping locks. When the lock gate that separates the saline seawater from the fresh river water is opened, a lock-exchange flow is initiated. Placing a bubble curtain at the gate location disrupts this flow and reduces saltwater infiltration. For practical applications, it is useful to quantify the effectiveness of the bubble curtain as a function of the governing parameters of the problem. To achieve this goal, we performed multiphase large eddy simulations that accurately reproduce previous experimental results including the two regimes of operation: the break-through and the curtain-driven regimes. This paper focusses on the curtain-driven regime and aims to unravel the temporal evolution of the effectiveness of bubble curtains. The detailed spatial and temporal information obtained from the simulations and the flexibility to vary the governing parameters allowed us to overcome several previous experimental limitations. In addition, the simulations were used to obtain parameters to build a semi-analytical model. Both the simulations and the semi-analytical model clearly describe and help to understand the time evolution of the density field and the effectiveness of the bubble curtain. These results show that the time elapsed since the opening of the gate and the transient dynamics are crucial for determining the effectiveness of bubble curtains.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_23421
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Bubble curtains in a lock-exchange flow: the importance of transient dynamics in the curtain-driven regime
Raaghav, Shravan K. R.
Driessen, Ronald J. A.
O'Mahoney, Tom S. D.
Uittenbogaard, Rob E.
Clercx, Herman J. H.
Duran-Matute, Matias
Fluid Dynamics
Bubble curtains are line bubble plumes that are used to mitigate saltwater intrusion in shipping locks. When the lock gate that separates the saline seawater from the fresh river water is opened, a lock-exchange flow is initiated. Placing a bubble curtain at the gate location disrupts this flow and reduces saltwater infiltration. For practical applications, it is useful to quantify the effectiveness of the bubble curtain as a function of the governing parameters of the problem. To achieve this goal, we performed multiphase large eddy simulations that accurately reproduce previous experimental results including the two regimes of operation: the break-through and the curtain-driven regimes. This paper focusses on the curtain-driven regime and aims to unravel the temporal evolution of the effectiveness of bubble curtains. The detailed spatial and temporal information obtained from the simulations and the flexibility to vary the governing parameters allowed us to overcome several previous experimental limitations. In addition, the simulations were used to obtain parameters to build a semi-analytical model. Both the simulations and the semi-analytical model clearly describe and help to understand the time evolution of the density field and the effectiveness of the bubble curtain. These results show that the time elapsed since the opening of the gate and the transient dynamics are crucial for determining the effectiveness of bubble curtains.
title Bubble curtains in a lock-exchange flow: the importance of transient dynamics in the curtain-driven regime
topic Fluid Dynamics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.23421