Engineering Commons^™

Expanding Instream Flows To Protect Ecosystems In Overallocated River Basins, Belize Lane, David E. Rosenberg

All In-stream Flows Material

Utahns are expressing a rapidly growing interest in protecting and enhancing instream flows for outdoor recreation and environmental benefits (Endter-Wada et al. 2015). However, many Utah rivers are already over-allocated for agricultural, municipal, hydropower and other water uses, making it difficult to procure additional water for instream flows. ‘Use it or lose it’ western water law and mentality encourages Utahns to use water rather than return it to rivers and ecosystems.

Utah Code 73-3-30, Utah State Legislature

All In-stream Flows Material

73-3-30 Change application for an instream flow.

The Effects Of Upstream Straight Pipe Length On Magnetic Flow Meter Accuracy, Bradley C. Clawson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In closed conduit water systems, being able to accurately measure flow is absolutely essential. For many meter designs, including electromagnetic induction meters (also known as magnetic flow meters), the greatest accuracy is achieved when the device is calibrated correctly. Optimal meter accuracy often depends on the flow conditions associated with the upstream geometry in the pipe system. Manufacturers typically give standards for the length of straight pipe required upstream of the meter. These standards vary, however, and do not address every possible configuration that may be installed upstream of the straight pipe requirement.

An investigation on the effects of the …

Little Bear And Blacksmith Fork Rivers Environmental Flows, Bio-West, Inc.

All In-stream Flows Material

This report describes existing information and first steps related to developing environmental flow recommendations for the Little Bear and Blacksmith Fork Rivers in Cache County, Utah. This project was undertaken by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in partnership with Trout Unlimited (TU), Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (UDWR), Cache County, and Utah State University (USU). Both rivers have been identified as conservation priorities, primarily for Bonneville cutthroat trout (BCT) and their riparian and aquatic systems.

Electrokinetic Flow In A Nanochannel With An Overlapped Electrical Double Layer, Zhuorui Song

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This research is a theoretical study aiming to improve the understanding of nanofluidic flows. Nanofluidic flows have a wide range of potential application in many fields, such as DNA analysis, drug delivery, analyte separation, power generation, and so on. The most common material used in nanofluidic flows is silica whose surfaces are charged mainly due to proton exchange with the fluids. Charges on the surfaces as well as near the surfaces in the fluid side cause a significantly different response of the fluids to the applied electric field or pressure difference compared to those at normal scale. In the previous …

Weir-Baffled Culvert Hydrodynamics Evaluation For Fish Passage Using Particle Image Velocimetry And Computational Fluid Dynamic Techniques, Mohanad A. Khodier

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Due to a recent increase in environmental awareness regarding fish passage through hydraulic structures, including culverts, an evaluation of passage of wild brown trout through a weir-baffled, prototype-scale culvert, was conducted under a variety of culvert slopes and discharge conditions. The influence of the fish sample population and the lengths of the individual fish on passage rates were investigated. The data showed that the fish sample size of 25 per test was sufficiently large to minimize sample size dependency. Fish behavior, including resting/staging zone locations, while traversing the culvert was observed and reported. Two preferable resting zones for the fish …

Energy-Vorticity Turbulence Model With Application To Flow Near Rough Surfaces, W. F. Phillips, E. B. Fowler, Doug F. Hunsaker

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

Based on a more direct analogy between turbulent and molecular transport, a foundation is presented for an energy–vorticity turbulence model. Whereas traditional k-εk-ε, k-ωk-ω, and k-ζk-ζ models relate the eddy viscosity to a dissipation length scale associated with the smaller eddies having the highest strain rates, the proposed model relates the eddy viscosity to a mean vortex wavelength associated with the larger eddies primarily responsible for turbulent transport. A rigorous development of the turbulent-energy-transport equation from the Navier–Stokes equations includes exact relations for the viscous dissipation and molecular transport of turbulent kinetic energy. Application of Boussinesq’s analogy between turbulent and …

Lower Hobble Creek Ecosystem Flow Recommendations, Melissa Stamp, Thomas Eddie, Darren Olsen, Tyler Allred

All In-stream Flows Material

This report describes the process and products of developing a suite of year-round instream flow recommendations for lower Hobble Creek in Utah County, Utah. This project was undertaken by the Utah Reclamation Mitigation and Conservation Commission (the Commission) as a component of the June Sucker Recovery Implementation Program (JSRIP) 2008 Work Plan (JSRIP 2008). The Commission is a Federal agency established by the Central Utah Project Completion Act (CUPCA [Titles II through VI of Public Law 102-575]). The Commission is responsible for mitigating impacts of the Bonneville Unit of the Central Utah Project (CUP) on fish, wildlife, and related recreation …

Modification Of Flow Model And Optimal Pumping Strategies For Capturing Tce And Dce Plumes Near Mission Drive, Wurtsmith Air Force Base, Michigan: Feasibility Study, Alaa H. Aly, Richard C. Peralta

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Utah State University (USU) and Parsons Engineering Science (PES) were tasked by the Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence to:

( 1) Modify the three-dimensional basewide ground-water flow model for Wurtsmith Air Force Base (WAFS), Michigan (PES, 1997) based on recent investigation by ICF Kaiser (ICF).

(2) Develop contaminant transport models for OT-24 area TCE and DCE plumes. These models will use the same parameters that were used by ICF in their feasibility study ..

(3) Use the flow and transport models to develop optimal pumping strategies to achieve cleanup and capture of the plumes

Evaluation Of Two-Dimensional Hydraulic Modeling In A Natural River And Implications In Instream Flow Assessment Methods, Karl L. Tarbet

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Logan River was used as a study site to assess the capabilities of two-dimensional depth-averaged hydraulic modeling in the x-y plane of a natural river for use with instream flow studies. Data were collected to spatially represent the study reach with depth, velocity, northing, easting, elevation, and substrate values using a total station and electronic velocity meter. Computational finite element meshes were generated using four different density levels of geometry data to examine the relationship between field data density and computational mesh on geometry errors. Geometry errors were found to be related to smoothing effects, which removed complex channel …

A New Method For The Determination Of Flow Directions And Contributing Areas In Grid Digital Elevation Models, David G. Tarboton

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

A new procedure for the representation of flow directions and calculation of upslope areas using rectangular grid digital elevation models is presented. The procedure is based on representing flow direction as a single angle taken as the steepest downward slope on the eight triangular facets centered at each grid point. Upslope area is then calculated by proportioning flow between two downslope pixels according to how close this flow direction is to the direct angle to the downslope pixel. This procedure offers improvements over prior procedures that have restricted flow to eight possible directions (introducing grid bia) or proportioned flow according …

Detachment Of Human Endothelial Cells Under Flow From Wettability Gradient Surfaces With Different Functional Groups, T. G. Ruardy, H. E. Moorlag, J. M. Schakenraad, H. C. Van Der Mei, H. J. Busscher

Cells and Materials

In this study, the position bound adhesion, spreading and detachment under flow of human umbilical cord endothelial cells (HUVEC) was studied on a dichlorodimethylsilane (DDS), dimethylocta-decylchlorosilane (DOCS) and tridecafluor-1,1,2,2-tetrahydrooctyl-1-dimethylchlorosilane (TFCS) wettability gradient on glass. Gradient surfaces were prepared by the diffusion method and characterized by the Wilhelmy plate technique for their wettability and by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) for their chemical composition. Quantitative analysis of the cellular response on the wettability gradient surfaces showed that the position bound cellular response was influenced by wettability for each type of gradient in a different way. On DDS-wettability gradients, cells withstood flow best …

A Mathematical Model Of Stratified Bi-Directional Flow Through The Railroad Causeway Embankment Of Great Salt Lake, James T. Cameron

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A two-dimensional, finite-element, porous-media flow model is developed to simulate stratified bi-directional flow of brine through the earth embankment carrying the Southern Pacific Railroad across Great Salt Lake. The model is part of a two-year research program whose objective is to develop a computer model of circulation in Great Salt Lake. This overall model is to be used as a predictive device for salinity distributions and circulation patterns in the lake. The porous media flow model is designed to establish flow rates through the Southern Pacific Railroad causeway embankment which traverses the north central part of the lake and divides …

Design Criteria For Usu Stilling Basin Pipe Flow To Open Channels, Chi-Yuan Wei

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Criterion have been developed in this study for designing a stilling basin to serve as a transition from pipe flow to open channel flow. The purpose of the structure is to prevent erosion in an open channel. The unsteadiness, or smoothness, of the water surface in the model basin was used as the criterion for evaluating the effectiveness of the structure for energy dissipation.

The introduction of a short-pipe energy dissipater in the stilling basin has proven effective in dissipating energy. The stilling basin was designed for a fully submerged pipe outlet. The inflow pipe and the dissipator pipe were …

Flume Study Of The Effect Of Concentration And Size Of Roughness Elements On Flow In High-Gradient Natural Channels, Mohamed Wafaie Abdelsalam

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In recent years investigators have given increased attention to flow in natural, high-gradient, rough, open channels. Studies include work in both the laboratory and in the field. Solutions to the problem are still incomplete; however, continued attention by investigators is needed to answer many questions. Using a laboratory flume, the writer studied one of the questions concerning the relative importance of gross velocity fluctuations versus turbulent mixing, and the ranges of each under different ranges of submergence and kineticity of flow. In the different ranges, the effect of size and concentration of the roughness elements was studied.