Scale effects in physical hydraulic engineering models

Scale effects arise due to force ratios which are not identical between a model and its real-world prototype and result in deviations between the up-scaled model and prototype observations. This review article considers mechanical, Froude and Reynolds model-prototype similarities, describes scale ef...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of hydraulic research 2011-06, Vol.49 (3), p.293-306
Main Author: Heller, Valentin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Computational fluid dynamics
Constraining
Criteria
Dimensional analysis
Earth sciences
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
Fluid flow
Froude similarity
Hydraulic engineering
Hydraulics
Hydrology. Hydrogeology
landslide generated impulse wave
Mathematical models
physical hydraulic modelling
Reynolds similarity
Scale effect
scale series
Sediment transport
similarity theory
Studies
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Summary:Scale effects arise due to force ratios which are not identical between a model and its real-world prototype and result in deviations between the up-scaled model and prototype observations. This review article considers mechanical, Froude and Reynolds model-prototype similarities, describes scale effects for typical hydraulic flow phenomena and discusses how scale effects are avoided, compensated or corrected. Four approaches are addressed to obtain model-prototype similarity, to quantify scale effects and to define limiting criteria under which they can be neglected. These are inspectional analysis, dimensional analysis, calibration and scale series, which are applied to landslide generated impulse waves. Tables include both limiting criteria to avoid significant scale effects and typical scales of physical hydraulic engineering models for a wide variety of hydraulic flow phenomena. The article further shows why it is challenging to model sediment transport and distensible structures in a physical hydraulic model without significant scale effects. Possible future research directions are finally suggested.
ISSN:0022-1686
1814-2079
DOI:10.1080/00221686.2011.578914