Journal of Hydraulic Structures

Journal of Hydraulic Structures

A Comprehensive Numerical Investigation of Flow Characteristics over Hydrofoil Weirs

Document Type : Technical Notes

Authors
1 Department of Water Engineering, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.
2 Faculty of Water and Environmental Engineering, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran.
Abstract
Hydrofoil weirs have attracted the attention of researchers in recent years due to their favorable hydraulic performance. This study presents a comprehensive numerical investigation of the performance of three Hydrofoil weirs models with varying heights (4.5, 5.25, and 6.0 cm) under free-flow conditions. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were performed with the RNG k-ε turbulence model to analyze the flow pattern, pressure distribution, and turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), and discharge coefficient. A detailed mesh sensitivity analysis yielded an optimized computational mesh, ensuring the numerical accuracy of the model. The results show that the maximum water surface profile in the numerical and experimental models is approximately close to 1 and in the N24 model it is equal to 0.99 and also the maximum u/umax and Z/Zmax in all three cases is1. Also, the maximum relative pressure P/γh is approximately 0.75. The 3D simulation shows that with increasing velocity in the x direction, the turbulence energy increases from 0 to 0.020. Also, the flow depth increases from 0.031 to 0.143. The pressure near the crest is reduced and recovered in the downstream section, while the turbulent kinetic energy in the outflow jet is significantly reduced. Notably, no flow separation occurred upstream or downstream of the structure, which helps to improve the energy dissipation efficiency. The discharge coefficient increased with the flow rate, which can be attributed to a decrease in the water level over the crest.
Keywords
Subjects

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Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 29 September 2026