Effect of Surface Wave on Development of Turbulent Boundary Layer over a Train of Rib Roughness

In this paper, detailed experimental results are reported to study the effect of the surface wave of different frequencies on unidirectional current over the bed-mounted train of rib roughness. The model roughness used in this study is transverse square ribs that lengthened across the entire width of the recirculating wave channel. The center-to-center rib pitch (P) was constant during the experiments, thus generating a broad range of near-bed flow patterns for each of the three different surface wave frequencies studied here. The relative submergence associated with the roughness height (k) was 8, which fall in the category of large roughness. Velocity measurements were conducted using acoustic Doppler velocimeter (ADV), and a surface wave of different frequencies was generated using the plunger-type wavemaker. The measured velocity data were analyzed to determine the relative importance of mean flow over the train of rib roughness. Mean velocity profiles illustrate the well-known downward shift from the flat surface data of the semi-logarithmic portion of the law of the wall. The width of the turbulent boundary layer increases with the superposition of surface wave compared to that of the current-only flow. The results also show that the mean reattachment length decreases due to the superposition of surface wave on unidirectional current.