Impact of the Confluence Angle on Flow Field and Flowmeter Accuracy in Open Channel Junctions

Open channel junction is one of the most common hydraulic structures that are used in various practical situations such as sewer, drainage, and flood control systems. Knowing the fluid flow behavior, is one of the most important topics in designing the efficient open channel junctions. The complexity and deviation of flow in the junction’s zone disrupts the proper functioning of the flowmeter devices which are located in the cross section and causing error in their measurements. Various three-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) models were developed in this paper in order to study in the velocity field and flowmeter accuracy of junctions in different hydraulic conditions and confluence angles. The results showed that by increasing the confluence angle, the junction’s downstream flow becomes more complicated, and consequently, the difference between the flowmeter measured discharge values and the real discharge value becomes greater. For the junction with 30° confluence, the flowmeter discharge prediction error is equal to 2 and 6.45% in the junction’s upstream and downstream, respectively. These values increase to 6 and 38.65% for the junction’s upstream and downstream with 90° confluence, respectively.