Longitudinal dispersion in open channels

Abstract

Laboratory experiments on longitudinal dispersion in clear-water open channel flows are reported. Analysis of laboratory and field data indicate that the dispersion coefficient is invariant along the length in uniform flows and varies with distance in non-uniform flows. Available predictors for dispersion coefficient are found not to yield realistic value of dispersion coefficient. As such, a new predictor for estimating the dispersion coefficient is proposed in this paper. The temporal variation of pollutant concentration computed using predicted DL value and a numerical scheme previously developed by the authors showed good agreement with the observed temporal variations. © 1999 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.