Sediment Transport in Rivers and Coastal Waters

Following Bagnold's approach, a relationship between sediment transport and energy dissipation is developed. The major assumption made in the study is that the near bed velocity plays a dominant role in the process of sediment transport. A general relationship between energy dissipation and sediment transport is first proposed. Then the equations for total sediment transport are derived by introducing the appropriate expression of energy dissipation rate under different conditions, such as open channel flows, combination of wave and current, as well as longshore sediment transport. Within the flows investigated, the derived relationships are fairly consistent with the available data over a wide range of conditions.     

Protection of bridge piers against scouring with tetrahedral frames

Armoring countermeasures, such as riprap stones, are the primary method used to protect bridge piers against scouring; however, these methods have not had definitive success. Recently, flow-altering countermeasures, such as sacrificial piles, have been tested as an alternative to armoring countermeasures. This study investigated the mechanics of an innovative flow-altering countermeasure device, frames in the shape of tetrahedrons that act as a pier-scour countermeasure. Results of measured characteristics for turbulence flow showed that the flow around the tetrahedral frames can be divided into three regions： （1） a deceleration region near the sediment bed; （2） an acceleration region in the middle of water depth region; and （3） a restoration region near the water surface. The velocity magnitudes, turbulent intensities and vorticities decreased in the deceleration region, increased in the acceleration region and reverted to that of the unprotected condition in the restoration region. This pier-scour countermeasure is innovative because of its ability to dissipate energy associated with the downflow and the horseshoes vortex generated around the bridge pier. The scour tests revealed that the frames protected the foundation of bridge piers against scour. The experimental results showed that the percentage reduction of scour depth decreased as the velocity ratio, U/U c , decreased, reaching a value of 50% for the range of parameters tested in this study. Moreover, its efficiency was dependent on the placement density of the frames. The data showed that the frames were more effective when η was larger. However, their influence becomes less significant when η≥ 0.16.     

Velocity and Sediment Concentration Profiles in Sediment-Laden Flows

A theoretical analysis of velocity profiles in sediment-laden flows is presented by means of Prandtl-Karman mixing length theorem. The study shows that the upward velocity of liquid-phase caused by settling sediment leads to the invalidity of the log-law and Rouse equation. The theoretical analysis takes into account the upward velocity and shows: 1) the mean velocity in sediment-laden flows follows the log-law, but the Karman constant reduces in the main flow region, 2) sediment concentration reduces the mixing length of fluid particles, 3) flow resistance reduces with the presence of sediment concentration, and 4) the sediment concentration profile deviates from the well know Rouse equation. The experimental data agree well with the equations derived on the basis of non-zero wall velocity. It is found that the wall-normal velocity should not be neglected for density gradient flows because it induces more than for pure water flows.     

A laboratory study of rheological properties of mudflows in Hangzhou Bay,China

A laboratory study of the rheology of mudflows in Hangzhou Bay, China, is reported in this paper. Both the steady and oscillatory （dynamic） rheological properties are studied using RMS-605 rheometer. A Dual-Bingham model is proposed for analyzing flow curves and compared with Worrall-Tuliani model. It is found that Dual-Bingham plastic rheological model is easier to implement than Worrall-Tuliani model and can provide satisfactory representations of the steady mudflows in Hangzhou Bay and other published data. The dependence of the yield stress and viscosity on sediment concentration is discussed based on the data from Hangzhou Bay mud and other published data. For the dynamic rheologieal properties of Hangzhou Bay mud, empirical expressions for elastic modulus and dynamic viscosity are provided in the form of exponential functions of sediment volume concentration, and comparisons with other published data also discussed.     

EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF BEDLOAD TRANSPORT IN UNSTEADY OPEN-CHANNEL FLOW

I.INTRODUCTIONBedloadtransportinsteadyuniformopenchannelflowhasbeenextensiVelystudied.Manyoftheformulasdevelopedforthepredictionofbedloadtransportinuniformopen-channelflowcanbebroughtinthefollowingform(ChienandWan,1983);ac=f(O)(l)xvhereacisthedimensionlessparameterofbedloadtranSPortandOisthedimensionlessparameterofflowintensity.TheseparametersaredefinedasfwheregsisthebedloadtranspoftratePerunitwidthindryweight;disthesedimentdiameter,Sisthebedslopeofthechannel;Rbisthehydraulicradiusdue…     

A Boussinesq Equation-Based Model for Nearshore Wave Breaking

Based on the wave breaking model by Li and Wang (1999), this work is to apply Dally‘ s analytical solution to the wave-height decay instead of the empirical and semi-empirical hypotheses of wave-height distribution within the wave breaking zone. This enhances the applicability of the model. Computational results of shoaling, location of wave breaking, wave-height decay after wave breaking, set-down and set-up for incident regular waves are shown to have good agreement with experimental and field data.