3D Modeling of sediment movement by ships-generated wakes in confined shipping channel

Abstract

Ship-generated waves and return currents are capable of re-suspending significant quantities of bottom and bank sediments. However, most of the previous studies done on the subject do not show how and where sediment is re-suspended by the wakes and the directions of net transport. In this paper, a 3D numerical model based on hydro-sedimentary coupling is presented to search the relationship between the sediment movement, and the pattern of ship-generated waves around and far away from the vessel and the return currents around the ships. The hydrodynamic model is based on 3D Navier-Stokes equations including the standard k-ε model for turbulence processes, and the sediment transport model is based on a 3D equation for the re-suspended sediment transport. The computation results show that the areas of sediment concentration and transport (whether by resuspension or by the bedload) depend mainly on the position, the speed of the ship in the waterways, the kinematics of ship-generated waves and on the return flows. Thus, a map of sediment distribution and the modes of sediment transport generated by the passage of the ship are presented.