Large Eddy Simulation for flows through emerged or slightly sub-merged square obstacles

As a result of climate change, we believe that extreme floods will become more frequent and more intense. The flows through obstacles representing an urbanized floodplain is realised in a laboratory at Re = 4766 and 8580. The purpose of the present study is first to validate a numerical model using Large Eddy Simulation (LES) against experimental data regarding the average longitudinal velocity and the secondary vortices formation. Then, additional data can be obtained and quantified. Therefore the geometrical parameters can be changed and their influence analysed and compared to the literature. A good agreement was found between simulated and experimental vertical profiles of time averaged velocity for the flow through emerged or slightly submerged obstacles. The additional simulations highlight that the flow structure is mostly driven by the transverse aspect ratio using the distance between two adjacent obstacles.