Effects of silt loading on turbulence and sand transport

The transport of bed material and fluid turbulence are affected by many factors,including the fine sediment load being carried in a channel.Current research has focused on sand-sized particles introduced to gravel beds,while the effect of silt load on sand transport has received less attention. Experiments on the effects of silt load,in concentrations 0-26,900 mg l^-1,on sand transport were performed with a recirculating laboratory flume using three different sand bed configurations:ripples （Fr=0.24）,dunes（Fr=0.34）,and dunes（Fr=0.48）.Three Acoustic Doppler Velocimeters were arranged to measure flow and turbulence quantities simultaneously in one vertical.Sand transport did not change in a consistent manner with increasing silt load,increasing up to 4,000 mg l^-1 for dunes （Fr=0.48） and up to 2,000 mg l^-1 for dunes（Fr=0.34） and then declining to near the clear water case with increasing silt concentrations.Silt addition for the ripple case caused a relatively small change in sand transport,decreasing with added silt up to approximately 2,000 mg l^-1 and then increasing as silt went up to approximately 10,000 mg l^-1.Dunes（Fr=0.48） decreased in length and height as silt increased,while dunes（Fr=0.34） did not show a consistent trend.A clear trend of decreasing Reynolds stress with increasing silt concentration was observed in the ripple case,with a 33% reduction in near-bed Reynolds stress caused by an 8,900 mg l^-1 concentration of silt.     

Bed forms in bimodal sand–gravel sediments: laboratory and field analysis

Bed forms were studied in Goodwin Creek and a laboratory flume channel. The bed sediment of the field site and flume had median diameters of 8·3 (modes of 0·4, 22·6 mm) and 1·82 mm (modes of 0·5, 5·6 mm), respectively. The laboratory and field channels had similar values of bimodal parameters, ratios of flow depth to median bed material diameter, and ratios of shear stress to critical shear stress and were judged to be comparable in the transport of bed load sediment and the resulting bed forms. Three groupings of bed forms from the laboratory flume experiments (ripple-like bed forms, bed load sheets, low-relief bed waves) were identified using the height and period of the bed forms. For the range of flow depths and discharges investigated in the flume, bed forms became higher and longer with increasing bed shear stress. Bed forms from Goodwin Creek were similar to those from the flume with comparable ratios between bed form length, height, and flow depth. The bed forms in the flume provide a positive link between rate and size fluctuations measured in the field and the bed forms. The smaller bed forms identified were sediment starved and are not considered to be dunes, while the largest bed forms in which all of the bed material sizes were mobilized in the field and laboratory were judged to be dunes.     

Flow near a model spur dike with a fixed scoured bed

Three-dimensional flow velocities were measured using an acoustic Doppler velocimeter at a closely spaced grid over a fixed scoured bed with a submerged spur dike. Three-dimensional flow velocities were measured at 3,484 positions around the trapezoidal shaped submerged model spur dike. General velocity distributions and detailed near field flow structures were revealed by the measurement. Clear differences were revealed between flow over fixed flat and scoured beds. Strong lateral flows were the dominant cause of the observed local scour. Shear stresses were higher for the scoured bed than in the flat bed case. Decreasing rates of scour as the scour hole developed were attributed to increases in critical shear stress in the scour holes caused by the increase in the length and magnitude of adverse slopes associated with the two main scour holes.     

Measurements of coupled fluid and sediment motion over mobile sand dunes in a laboratory flume

The relationship between turbulent fluid motions and sediment particle motions over mobile sand dunes was investigated by using a laser Doppler velocimeter and an acoustic backscatter system in laboratory experiments performed at the USDA-ARS-National Sedimentation Laboratory. Profiles of acoustic backscatter from particles and at-a-point turbulence data were collected while translating both measurement devices downstream at the speed of mobile dune bedforms. The resulting data set was used to examine the frequency （recurrence frequency） at which the fluctuating backscatter and fluid velocity signals exceeded magnitude thresholds based on the standard deviation （σ） of the local velocity and the magnitude the acoustic signal resulting from backscatter from suspended particles. The slope of the downstream and vertical velocity recurrence frequencies generally indicated a gradually increasing recurrence time with increasing elevation. The recurrence frequency for acoustic backscatter data was not strongly variable with elevation. The closest correspondence between the recurrence frequencies of sediment backscatter and vertical velocities at the 1σ magnitude threshold was in a region defined by X/L〈0.4 and y〈6 cm. The downstream velocity was most closely related to backscatter in a small region at 0.4〈X/L〈0.8 and less than 3-4 cm from the bed.     

PREDICTION OF THE GRAIN SIZE OF SUSPENDED SEDIMENT： IMPLICATIONS FOR CALCULATING SUSPENDED SEDIMENT CONCENTRATIONS USING SINGLE FREQUENCY ACOUSTIC BACKSCATTER

Collection of samples of suspended sediment transported by streams and rivers is difficult and expensive. Emerging technologies, such as acoustic backscatter, have promise to decrease costs and allow more thorough sampling of transported sediment in streams and rivers. Acoustic backscatter information may be used to calculate the concentration of suspended sand-sized sediment given the vertical distribution of sediment size. Therefore, procedures to accurately compute suspended sediment size distributions from easily obtained river data are badly needed. In this study, techniques to predict the size of suspended sand are examined and their application to measuring concentrations using acoustic backscatter data are explored. Three methods to predict the size of sediment in suspension using bed sediment, flow criteria, and a modified form of the Rouse equation yielded mean suspended sediment sizes that differed from means of measured data by 7 to 50 percent. When one sample near the bed was used as a reference, mean error was reduced to about 5 percent. These errors in size determination translate into errors of 7 to 156 percent in the prediction of sediment concentration using backscatter data from 1 MHz single frequency acoustics.