Flow patterns, sedimentation and deposit architecture under a hydraulic jump on a non‐eroding bed: defining hydraulic‐jump unit bars

Abstract

AbstractThis paper presents results from two flume runs of an ongoing series examining flow structure, sediment transport and deposition in hydraulic jumps. It concludes in the presentation of a model for the development of sedimentary architecture, considered characteristic of a hydraulic jump over a non‐eroding bed. In Run 1, a hydraulic jump was formed in sediment‐free water over the solid plane sloping flume floor. Ultrasonic Doppler velocity profilers recorded the flow structure within the hydraulic jump in fine detail. Run 2 had identical initial flow conditions and a near‐steady addition of sand, which formed beds with two distinct characteristics: a laterally extensive, basal, wedge‐shaped massive sand bed overlain by cross‐laminated sand beds. Each cross‐laminated bed recorded the initiation and growth of a single surface feature, here defined as a hydraulic‐jump unit bar. A small massive sand mound formed on the flume floor and grew upstream and downstream without migrating to form a unit bar. In the upstream portion of the unit bar, sand finer than the bulk load formed a set of laminae dipping upstream. This set passed downstream through the small volume of massive sand into a foreset, which was initially relatively coarse‐grained and became finer‐grained downstream. This downstream‐fining coincided with cessation of the growth of the upstream‐dipping cross‐set. At intervals, a new bed feature developed above and upstream of the preceding hydraulic‐jump unit bar and grew in the same way, with the foreset climbing the older unit bar. The composite architecture of the superimposed unit bars formed a fanning, climbing coset above the massive wedge, defined as one unit: a hydraulic‐jump bar complex.