Review of Cohesive Sediments in Open Channels: Erosion, Transport, and Applications by Emmanuel PartheniadesCohesive Sediments in Open Channels: Erosion, Transport, and ApplicationsButterworth-Heinemann$135.00

Abstract

It is mainly because of their physicochemical properties that the development of our understanding of cohesive sediments has followed a course somewhat different from that of noncohesive sediments. A major and acknowledged role in the advance of cohesive sediments knowledge is played by the methods of physics as expressed through non-Newtonian fluid mechanics. Recent advances in understanding microscale dynamic behavior of cohesive sediments are also rooted in the physicochemical hydrodynamics and soil mechanics. The extraordinary growth of interest in cohesive sediments since the 1950s continues to provoke the publication of new engineering-oriented monographs into the early 21st century, notably, Whitehouse et al. 2000 , and Winterwerp and van Kesteren 2004 . Emmanuel Partheniades’s new book aims to provide a practical framework for theoretical, laboratory, and field studies of erosion and transport of cohesive sediments and the major environmental factors influencing those processes. This book reviews the current status of those research topics with particular emphasis on the work by the author and his associates and colleagues. Its scope is best seen in terms of the chapter headings: “The Mineralogy and the Physicochemical Properties of Cohesive Sediments,” “Forces between Clay Particles and the Process of Flocculation,” The Hydrodynamic Transport Processes of Cohesive Sediments and the Governing Equations,” “Rheologic Properties of Cohesive Sediment Suspensions,” “Erosion of Cohesive Soils,” “Deposition and Resuspension of Cohesive Soils,” and “Engineering Applications of Cohesive Sediment Dynamics.” Such topics would be of particular interest to civil and hydraulic engineers. Some of them could be of interest to hydrologists, geomorphologists, sedimentologists, and environmental scientists. The first chapter, “Introduction,” briefly highlights the importance and distinction of sediments in general, then provides an overview of the historical development of the science and engineering of cohesive sediment behavior, and finally states the overall objectives of this book and outlines its major contents. Chapter 2, “The Mineralogy and the Physicochemical Properties of Cohesive Sediments,” presents a detailed overview of the nature and mineralogy of clay particles within cohesive sediment suspensions and cohesive sediment deposits. This is a nice chapter summarizing and discussing the major fundamental physicochemical properties of cohesive sediments that are critical to their dynamic behavior. The main difference between this second chapter and similar chapters in other texts on cohesive sediments is in