Large Eddy Simulation of the Flow Field in the Hudson River

Large-eddy simulation (LES) has been conducted under idealized conditions in two river reaches of the Hudson River (New York, USA), with near-bank resolution set to some 5 meters in order to resolve large-scale motions of turbulence in the near-bank regions. To simplify analysis, simulation is performed at a constant discharge corresponding to a typical ebb tide. A standard Smagorinsky model is implemented in the commercial package FLUENT, with buoyancy neglected and bottom roughness set to zero. We perform Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) on the LES results. POD modes are orthogonal flow fields that capture the kinetic energy in an optimally convergent fashion. Results show that only a few POD modes are enough to describe the most energetic flow dynamics. In a reach around the Indian Point power plant, the second and third modes reflect an interesting generation of separating eddies on the western bank, which we do not find with a URANS (standard k-ε) computation on the same grid. To test our simulation, a comparison of simulation results with other simulation results and Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) data measured at West Point, New York will be presented.