CFD modelling of air entrainment and sediment in open-channels using OpenFOAM

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Air entrainment is a common concern in a number of water resource infrastructures. Water treatment facilitiesuse bubbles (entrained air) to transfer gases such as ozone, oxygen, air, and carbon dioxide into water. Bubblesare also used in grit removal chambers to suspend light solids, while allowing heavier solids (grit) to settle outfor removal. Modeling entrained air and sediment accurately is difficult mainly due to problems of properlydefining the bubble geometry and the complex interactions that occur between bubbles, sediment and water.NHC currently has an interest in applying OpenFOAM for projects involving air entrainment and sedimenttransport.The principal objective of the proposed project is to demonstrate the successful implementation of bubbleand sediment models in the open-source computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software OpenFOAM based onan open-channel flow case study. The secondary objective is to develop a simple methodology forincorporating OpenFOAM in NHC's day-to-day workflows which takes advantage of the developed airentrainment and sediment models.This collaboration between NHC and the Université de Sherbrooke (UdeS) will provide insights into howOpenFOAM can be effectively employed for complex hydrotechnical projects involving air and sediment. Theknowledge gained will enable NHC to bid on previously unattainable projects and allow NHC to be morecompetitive in its bid thus promoting its future viability. NHC will gain a technical advantage by using anopen-source platform over other companies who depend on commercial software and excessive licensing fees.Assuring the competitiveness of Canadian owned companies like NHC is thus in the interest of Canada andCanada's economy.