Merel Verbeek

Delft University of Technology | TU · Department of Hydraulic Engineering

Plain Language Summary A river bifurcation is where a river splits into two branches. Water and sediment from the upstream channel are divided between the bifurcation's downstream branches. This division is important for flood risk, freshwater supply, and navigation. Here we investigate the flow division and related changes in bed level and bed sur...

The tidal flow between bridge pillars and through open barriers is a promising source of ocean energy which can be exploited using tidal stream turbines, as proven recently by operational demonstration plants. The aim of this study is to clarify the consequences for the power output of tidal turbines when placing them in a hydraulic structure. To t...

Coastal infrastructure, such as bridges and storm surge barriers with weirs, provides an attractive location for harvesting renewable energy using tidal turbines. Often stone layers are applied downstream of coastal infrastructure to protect the sea bed from erosion. However, little is known about the potential effect of tidal energy extraction on...

An economical way to harvest tidal energy is by integrating free stream turbines in coastal infrastructure. While numerous studies have investigated how turbines should be arranged in idealized geometries to optimize their performance, only a few have considered the influence of realistic bed features. This research investigates the influence of a...

In the presentation we discuss how flow separation downstream of irregular bathymetric features affects the theoretical power that can be extracted from a barrier, using results from a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model of the full scale tidal turbines which are installed in a Dutch storm surge barrier. Possibly, more power can be extracted f...

Large scale Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) can be of great use to quantify the surface flow velocities of highly turbulent environmental flows. Preliminary results show that the turbulent flow scales of a jet downstream a semi-open barrier can be quantified using unseeded PIV. The technique, executed with a digital camera, can produce sufficientl...