Particle image velocimetry data characterizing flow and turbulence fields at free-flow-porous media interface

The data includes two-dimensional (2D) instantaneous velocity fields and time-averaged 2D flow properties. We obtained the velocity data in an experimental flume, which is composed of an open channel and underlying porous media, at the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, University of Minnesota using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The PIV is a non-intrusive laser optical measurement technique, which measures flow at the high spatiotemporal resolution by estimating cross-correlations between laser-illuminated subsequent images recorded by a high-speed camera. We used the PIV-measured 2D flow fields to validate the results of numerical flow simulations based on Large Eddy Simulation. The main objective of this study is to investigate pore-scale flow effects on solute transport across open channel- porous media interfaces. The released data would also be useful to researchers who need to validate flow simulation results.