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River engineering Numerical modelling in river engineering

Cavitation is a phenomenon that can be present in several agro-forestry applications such as irrigation pressure-reducing valves, sprinkler orifices or even in the flow through xylem vessels inside plants. In the present research, numerical predictions of cavitation in a series of orifices, nozzles and venturis were compared to experimental measurements to show the possibilities and performances of the new cavitation model in the commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code FLUENT V6.1. A flashing study is also presented for the nozzle case. Model predictions for the orifice cases accurately capture cavitation inception and its influence on the orifice discharge coefficient. However, when an unsteady flow is modeled, the cavitation phenomenon is not simulated properly and leads to a steady situation. In general, the new cavitation model in FLUENT V6.1 provides very reliable simulation for easy geometries when steady flow is assumed., Los procesos de cavitación tienen relevancia en diferentes aspectos del área agroforestal, como en válvulas reductoras de presión para riego, chorros en aspersores e incluso en el flujo de savia en el xilema de las plantas. En este trabajo se ha validado el nuevo modelo de cavitación incluido en el programa comercial de mecánica de fluidos computacional FLUENT V6.1 en varios orificios, estrechamientos y venturis, comparando los resultados experimentales con los obtenidos por el modelo. También se presenta un estudio del fenómeno "flashing" producido en el estrechamiento. Las predicciones del modelo en el caso de los orificios muestran una buena estimación del momento de inicio de la cavitación así como de su desarrollo, estimado con el coeficiente de descarga del orificio. Sin embargo, cuando se trata de modelar el flujo en estado no estacionario, el proceso de cavitación no es simulado correctamente conduciendo a una situación estacionaria. De todo ello podemos concluir que el nuevo modelo de cavitación simula adecuadamente la cavitación en el flujo a través de geometrías sencillas, como los orificios y estrechamientos, en estado estacionario.

© 2021 by the authors., Satellite data are very useful for the continuous monitoring of ever-changing environments, such as wetlands. In this study, we investigated the use of multispectral imagery to monitor the winter evolution of land cover in the Albufera wetland (Spain), using Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 datasets. With multispectral data, the frequency of observation is limited by the possible presence of clouds. To overcome this problem, the data acquired by the two missions, Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2, were jointly used, thus roughly halving the revisit time. The varied types of land cover were grouped into four classes: (1) open water, (2) mosaic of water, mud and vegetation, (3) bare soil and (4) vegetated soil. The automatic classification of the four classes was obtained through a rule-based method that combined the NDWI, MNDWI and NDVI indices. Point information, provided by geo-located ground pictures, was spatially extended with the help of a very high-resolution image (GeoEye-1). In this way, surfaces with known land cover were obtained and used for the validation of the classification method. The overall accuracy was found to be 0.96 and 0.98 for Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2, respectively. The consistency evaluation between Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 was performed in six days, in which acquisitions by both missions were available. The observed dynamics of the land cover were highly variable in space. For example, the presence of the open water condition lasted for around 60–80 days in the areas closest to the Albufera lake and progressively decreased towards the boundaries of the park. The study demonstrates the feasibility of using moderate-resolution multispectral images to monitor land cover changes in wetland environments., This research was funded by the PhD course on Risk and Sustainability in Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Systems of Salerno University (PON Research and Innovation 2014–2020 scholarship).

The design of trickle irrigation systems is crucial to optimize profitability and to warrant high values for the emission uniformity (EU) coefficient. EU depends on variation of the pressure head due to head losses along the lines and elevation changes, as well as the water temperature, and other parameters related to the emitters (manufacturer's coefficient of variation, number of emitters per plants, emitter spacing). Trickle irrigation plants are usually designed using small diameter plastic pipes (polyethylene or polyvinyl chloride). The design problem, therefore, needs to consider head losses along the lines as well as emitter discharge variations due to the manufacturer's variability. Variations in the hydraulic head are a consequence of both friction losses along the pipe and local losses due to the emitters' connections, whose importance has been recently emphasized. Since each local loss depends on the emitter type (in-line or on-line) as well as on its shape and dimensions, the morphological variability of the commercially available emitter requires experimental investigations to determine local losses in drip laterals. On the other hand, local losses can be estimated by the mean of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models, allowing analysis of velocity profiles and the turbulence caused by the emitters' connections. FLUENT software can be considered a powerful tool to evaluate friction and local losses in drip irrigation laterals, after the necessary validation has been carried out by means of experimental data. The main objective of this study was to assess a CFD technique to evaluate friction and local losses in laterals with in-line coextruded emitters. The model was initially used to choose the turbulence model allowing the most accurate estimation of friction losses in small diameter polyethylene pipes, characterized by low Reynolds number. Second, the possibility of using CFD to predict local losses in drip irrigation laterals with a commercially available coextruded emitter was investigated. Simulated local losses were obtained as difference of the total and friction losses along a trunk of pipe, where one single emitter was installed, not considering the emitter outflow. The proposed procedure allows to evaluate local losses for other different emitter models, avoiding tedious and time-consuming experiments.

This paper describes an application of artificial neural networks (ANNs) to the prediction of local losses from integrated emitters. First, the optimum input-output combination was determined. Then, the mapping capability of ANNs and regression models was compared. Afterwards, a five-input ANN model, which considers pipe and emitter internal diameter, emitter length, emitter spacing, and pipe discharge, was used to develop a local losses predicting tool which was obtained from different training strategies while taking into account a completely independent test set. Finally, a performance index was evaluated for the test emitter models studied. Emitter data with low reliability were removed from the process. Performance indexes over 80% were obtained for the remaining test emitters.