Recirculating flow-induced anomalous transport in meandering open-channel flows

Channel meanders in rivers induce complex three-dimensional (3D) flow characteristics such as secondary flows and flow recirculation. Helical secondary flows promote transverse dispersion, and flow recirculation zones trap tracers. As a result, these meander-driven flows may cause anomalous transport manifested by unusually elevated levels of tracer concentration at early and late times of breakthrough curves (BTCs). In this study, we perform 3D numerical simulations in meandering channels across a wide range of channel sinuosity to investigate the impact of meander geometry on flow and transport. We solve 3D Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stoke equations blended with a SST k − ω turbulence model to obtain velocity and turbulence fields. We then incorporate the obtained flow fields into a Lagrangian particle tracking model to simulate solute transport. Sinuosity higher than 1.5 leads to the onset of horizontal recirculating flows along the apex outer banks, and these recirculation zones expand as sinuosity increases. The analysis of the transport simulations elucidates that the interplay between the secondary flows and recirculation zones induces anomalous transport. The helical secondary flows bring particles into the recirculation zones by promoting transverse dispersion, and the recirculating flows delay particle transport by the trapping effect. We show that the tail power-law slope and truncated time of BTCs as well as Lagrangian tortuosity distributions change dramatically with the emergence of recirculation zones. These analyses demonstrate that the recirculation zones are acting as the primary driver of anomalous transport. Finally, we successfully predict the observed anomalous transport with a Spatial Markov Model (SMM), which is an upscaled transport model that incorporates Lagrangian velocity distribution and spatial velocity correlation. The successful predictions show that the Lagrangian velocity statistics effectively capture the underlying mechanisms of anomalous transport in meandering open-channel flows.