Effect of angle of attack on flow past a partially-burrowed, isolated freshwater mussel

Influence of Bed Roughness on Flow and Turbulence Structure Around a Partially‐Buried, Isolated Freshwater Mussel

“…The Reynolds numbers and the level of mesh refinement in the region around the mussel were similar to those of the present study. Due to the presence of the irregular gravel bed and the need to resolve the turbulence generated by the roughness elements, for the number of computational cells used in the simulations reported in the present study is roughly three times higher than for the number of grid cells used by H. Wu, Constantinescu, and Zeng (2020) and H. Wu and Constantinescu (2022) to simulate flow past a partially‐burrowed mussel placed on a smooth, flat bed.…”

“…Similar to H. Wu and Constantinescu (2022), the computational mesh was generated using the grid generator in STAR-CCM+. The computational domain was meshed using mostly of hexahedral cells.…”

“…The present study uses a species of freshwater mussels ( Unio elongatulus ) that is characterized by a more streamlined body compared to the mussel ( L. siliquoidea ) used by H. Wu, Constantinescu, and Zeng (2020) and H. Wu and Constantinescu (2022) in their smooth bed simulations of flow past partially‐burrowed mussels. Moreover, the Unio elongatulus mussel tends to present large differences between the front side and its back side such that the (top of the) mussel appears to be inclined toward the incoming flow (Figure 1).…”

“…Several numerical studies that resolve the dynamically important coherent structures in the flow were conducted for an isolated mussel, or a small cluster of partially‐burrowed mussels, placed on a horizontal, smooth bed. These studies provided lots of information on the type of vortical structures generated by partially‐burrowed mussels, their dynamics and their effects on the drag forces and capacity of the flow to induce local scour as a function of the exposed height of the mussel, the direction of the incoming flow relative to the major axis of the mussel and the strength of the filtering flow (Constantinescu et al., 2013; H. Wu & Constantinescu, 2022; H. Wu, Constantinescu, & Zeng, 2020). To the best of our knowledge, eddy resolving techniques were not yet used to provide a similar description of the flow and turbulence structure around a mussel placed on a rough bed that approximates a natural benthic environment and of the dynamics of the larger‐scale coherent structures that control the capacity of the flow to induce local scour and mixing between the filtered water entering the channel through the excurrent siphon and the surrounding flow.…”

“…Several numerical studies that resolve the dynamically important coherent structures in the flow were conducted for an isolated mussel, or a small cluster of partially-burrowed mussels, placed on a horizontal, smooth bed. These studies provided lots of information on the type of vortical structures generated by partially-burrowed mussels, their dynamics and their effects on the drag forces and capacity of the flow to induce local scour as a function of the exposed height of the mussel, the direction of the incoming flow relative to the major axis of the mussel and the strength of the filtering flow (Constantinescu et al, 2013;H. Wu & Constantinescu, 2022;H.…”