Influence of bed roughness on flow and turbulence structure around a partially-buried, isolated freshwater mussel

The present study uses eddy-resolving numerical simulations to investigate how bed roughness affects flow and turbulence structure around an isolated, partially-buried mussel (Unio elongatulus) aligned with the incoming flow. The rough-bed simulations resolve the flow past the exposed part of a gravel bed, whose surface is obtained from a laboratory experiment that also provides some additional data for validation of the numerical model. Results are also discussed for the limiting case of a horizontal smooth bed. Additionally, the effects of varying the level of burial of the mussel inside the substrate and the discharge through the two mussel siphons are investigated via a set of simulatio…