Abstract
The Australian Aboriginals built fish traps and weirs over a long period of time, and there is a wide variety of structures. Herein this study focuses on rock fish traps constructed in inland waterways. A common shape was a horseshoe design convex in shape and opened downstream. In this study, some basic physical modelling of rock fish trap models was conducted under controlled flow conditions. A generic horseshoe element shape was selected, with a range of porosity, consistent with the rock fish trap construction. Flow conditions were tested from low partial submergence to complete submergence, corresponding to large flood events. The results give some seminal insights into the hydrodynamics of these fish traps and provide some physically-based understanding of their operation and purpose.
Article Highlights
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Semi-circular horseshoe elements open downstream were tested physically.
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A broad range of free-surface flow patterns were observed with porous and impervious elements.
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The element porosity modified the recirculation region and flow patterns.
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Interactions between adjacent horseshoe structures were tested experimentally.
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Data Availability
Some or all data, or models that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the technical assistance of Jason VAN DER GEVEL and Stewart Matthews (The University of Queensland). Helpful exchanges with Dr Duncan KEENAN-JONES (UQ School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry), Ms Sarah MARTIN, Dr Michael WESTAWAY (UQ School of Social Sciences) are acknowledged. The first author thanks Ms Ya-Hui CHOU for her assistance with the drawing. The financial support of the University of Queensland, School of Civil Engineering is acknowledged.
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The financial support of the University of Queensland, School of Civil Engineering is acknowledged.
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Hubert Chanson: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Resources, Investigation, Data Curation, Writing—Original Draft, Writing—Review & Editing, Supervision, Visualization, Project administration, Funding acquisition William Johnson: Investigation, Data Curation, Writing—Review & Editing.
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Appendices
Appendix 1: Digital Appendix
Visual observations were recorded using a dSLR Pentax™ K-3 and a digital camera Casio™ Exilim EX10. Table 3 describes each video movie available in the digital appendix.
Appendix 2: Flow patterns for porous model M3
Figure 10 presents photographs of the main flow patterns of the free-surface flow as the porous model M3, with 8 mm hole lattice flow through.
Basic flow patterns with a pervious horseshoe element (M3), with flow direction from right to left (unless indicated). (A) Regime L (d1/H < 0.3) with von Karman street of vortices; (B) Regime C (0.3 < d1/H < 1.2) with weak shock waves and interaction between seepage and recirculation region; (C) Regime D (1.2 < d1/H < 1.3); with interactions between seepage, overflow and recirculation region (D) Regime E (1.3 < d1/H < 3) with detached shock waves; (E) Regime F (d1/H > 3) with fully-submerged element acting as large roughness
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Chanson, H., Johnson, W. Interactions between emergent and submerged porous horseshoe elements and open channel flows. Environ Fluid Mech 23, 1–18 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10652-022-09903-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10652-022-09903-z