A CFD-based investigation of hydraulic regimes in overflow weir fishways
- 1College of Water Conservancy Engineering, Tianjin Agricultural University, Tianjin, China
- 2Beifang Investigation, Design and Research Co., Ltd., Tianjin, China
Abstract
Overflow weir fishways represent a basic type of pool-and-weir fishway structure. To investigate its hydraulic characteristics, this study conducts numerical simulations to obtain the flow field in a typical pool chamber. A total of nine cases are designed by varying the inlet discharge and pool depth, and the flow patterns, velocity distribution, turbulent kinetic energy, and dissipation rate are systematically analyzed. Three flow regimes are identified: plunging flow, streaming flow, and transition flow. The variation laws of these regimes with inlet discharge and pool depth are obtained. The distributions and evolution characteristics of velocity, turbulent kinetic energy, and dissipation rate are also summarized. The results show that the flow regime is jointly controlled by inflow discharge and vertical drop between adjacent pools. With the increase of inflow discharge, the flow regime shifts from plunging flow to transition flow and then to streaming flow. Under the same inflow discharge, a larger vertical drop tends to form plunging flow with lower turbulence intensity. This study reveals the fundamental hydraulic characteristics of overflow weir fishways and provides a reference for the structural design and hydraulic optimization of such fishways.
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BibTeX
@article{wang2026cfdbased,
title = {{A CFD-based investigation of hydraulic regimes in overflow weir fishways}},
author = {Xu Wang and Xiangkun Yang and Fan Wang and Na Xu and Yicai Teng and Zheng Qin and Ping Yu},
journal = {PLOS One},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0345694},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0345694},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - A CFD-based investigation of hydraulic regimes in overflow weir fishways
AU - Xu Wang
AU - Xiangkun Yang
AU - Fan Wang
AU - Na Xu
AU - Yicai Teng
AU - Zheng Qin
AU - Ping Yu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/25
JO - PLOS One
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0345694
UR - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0345694
AB - Overflow weir fishways represent a basic type of pool-and-weir fishway structure. To investigate its hydraulic characteristics, this study conducts numerical simulations to obtain the flow field in a typical pool chamber. A total of nine cases are designed by varying the inlet discharge and pool depth, and the flow patterns, velocity distribution, turbulent kinetic energy, and dissipation rate are systematically analyzed. Three flow regimes are identified: plunging flow, streaming flow, and transition flow. The variation laws of these regimes with inlet discharge and pool depth are obtained. The distributions and evolution characteristics of velocity, turbulent kinetic energy, and dissipation rate are also summarized. The results show that the flow regime is jointly controlled by inflow discharge and vertical drop between adjacent pools. With the increase of inflow discharge, the flow regime shifts from plunging flow to transition flow and then to streaming flow. Under the same inflow discharge, a larger vertical drop tends to form plunging flow with lower turbulence intensity. This study reveals the fundamental hydraulic characteristics of overflow weir fishways and provides a reference for the structural design and hydraulic optimization of such fishways.
SN - 1932-6203
ER -