Sediment-laden Flows Research Articles

High-resolving calculation of sedimentation process by DEM-base solid/liquid two-phase flow model

We have been investigating a sediment-laden flow used by a solid-liquid two phase flow model, in which motion of each particle is tracked by solving the Basset-Boussinesq-Oseen (BBO) equation. Hence, a modeling of interaction between solid- and liquid- phase was required, and consequently an accuracy of flow velocity field around particles was insufficient. In this study, we developed a model to solve the flow field around each particle with high resolution, and the Distinct Element Method (DEM) is applied to track each particle with taking interparticle force into account. After the performance of this model is confirmed in a basic test, a sedimentation process of particles in liquid was simulated.

The ~ 2500 yr B.P. Chicoral non-cohesive debris flow from Cerro Machín Volcano, Colombia

Cerro Machín Volcano (CMV) is located in the central part of the Colombian Andes (2750 m asl), 150 km southwest of Bogotá. It is considered the most dangerous active volcano of Colombia. CMV has experienced at least six major explosive eruptions during the last 5000 years. These eruptions have emplaced many types of pyroclastic deposits with associated lahars that have traveled more than 100 km. One of these lahars is called Chicoral Debris Flow Deposit (DFD2). This deposit is exposed as discontinuous terraces (3–20 m thick) along the Coello and Magdalena rivers up to 109 km from the source. The DFD2 covers a minimum area of 62 km 2 and has a minimum volume of 0.57 km 3. It comprises two dacite-rich volcaniclastic units. Grain-size analysis reveals that the matrix content and sorting increase with distance while the average grain size decreases. The clay content of the DFD2 matrix is approximately 1%, thus categorizing it as a non-cohesive debris flow. Radiocarbon dates obtained from underlying and overlying paleosols yielded ages of 2505 + 65 and 1640 + 45 yr B.P., respectively. These dates suggest that DFD2 is related to the ~ 2600 yr B.P. El Guaico eruption of CMV. This eruption produced a block-and-ash flow that filled and blocked the Toche River up to 5 km from the volcano. Subsequent remobilization of this loose material by runoff water generated a massive debris flow that traveled 91 km along the Toche and Coello rivers and continued across the Espinal Alluvial Fan debouching into the Magdalena River where it continued another 18 km prior to its transformation into a sediment-laden flow. Because the last eruption of the volcano occurred ca. 900 years ago, no historic activity of CMV is known among inhabitants of the region. Hence the region has developed without awareness of volcanic hazards. Therefore an assessment of volcanic hazards is essential for understanding and evaluating the vulnerability and risk to which people are exposed in case of a future eruption. Such assessment is critical for urban planning, development, contingency, emergency and education planning.

Onset of submarine debris flow deposition far from original giant landslide

Submarine landslides can generate sediment-laden flows whose scale is impressive. Individual flow deposits have been mapped that extend for 1,500 km offshore from northwest Africa. These are the longest run-out sediment density flow deposits yet documented on Earth. This contribution analyses one of these deposits, which contains ten times the mass of sediment transported annually by all of the world's rivers. Understanding how this type of submarine flow evolves is a significant problem, because they are extremely difficult to monitor directly. Previous work has shown how progressive disintegration of landslide blocks can generate debris flow, the deposit of which extends downslope from the original landslide. We provide evidence that submarine flows can produce giant debris flow deposits that start several hundred kilometres from the original landslide, encased within deposits of a more dilute flow type called turbidity current. Very little sediment was deposited across the intervening large expanse of sea floor, where the flow was locally very erosive. Sediment deposition was finally triggered by a remarkably small but abrupt decrease in sea-floor gradient from 0.05 degrees to 0.01 degrees. This debris flow was probably generated by flow transformation from the decelerating turbidity current. The alternative is that non-channelized debris flow left almost no trace of its passage across one hundred kilometres of flat (0.2 degrees to 0.05 degrees) sea floor. Our work shows that initially well-mixed and highly erosive submarine flows can produce extensive debris flow deposits beyond subtle slope breaks located far out in the deep ocean.

Impact of synsedimentary metre-scale normal fault scarps on sediment gravity flow dynamics: An example from the Grès d’Annot Formation, SE France

Synsedimentary faults result in the direct interaction between tectonic and sedimentary processes at similar spatio-temporal scales. Sedimentological analysis of sediment-laden gravity flows in the northern part of the Grès d'Annot Formation (Sanguinière sub-basin, Col de la Moutière/Tête Ronde) has revealed the presence of fault scarps of metre-scale height. These synsedimentary fault scarps were sufficient to disturb the sediment gravity flow dynamics resulting in (i) a strong variation of the erosive behaviour of a concentrated flow and (ii) the transformation of a strongly stratified, laminar hyperconcentrated flow into a turbulent flow, in short distance (less than 500 m). These disturbances develop without the flows being deviated by the fault scarps but produce great facies heterogeneity, the least homogeneous facies (mixing sand and clay) being localized on the upstream obstacle side, the most homogeneous (massive sand) downstream.

Simulation of low-concentration sediment-laden flow based on two-phase flow theory

Low concentration sediment-laden flow is usually involved in water conservancy, environmental protection, navigation and so on. In this article, a mathematical model for low-concentration sediment-laden flow was suggested based on the two-phase flow theory, and a solving scheme for the mathematical model in curvilinear grids was worked out. The observed data in the Zhang River in China was used for the verification of the model, and the calculated results of the water level, velocity and river bed deformation are in agreement with the observed ones.

Simulation of sediment-laden flow by depth-averaged model based on unstructured collocated grid

The 2-D depth-averaged mathematical model for sediment-laden flows has been widely used in river control and other related engineering problems, and now it is usually solved on structured grids. Since the natural river is usually very complicated in plane boundary, and unstructured grids are more attractive in solving the problems with complicated domains, the following questions about solving 2-D depth-averaged model were discussed in this article: (1) a modified Bowyer algorithm was suggested to generate unstructured grids for natural rivers, (2) the Finite Volume Method (FVM) is employed to discretize the governing equations of the 2-D depth-averaged model and an implicit scheme was suggested with unstructured collocated grids, (3) the observed hydrological data of the Chenglingji Reach in the Yangtze River are used for verification of the presented method. It seems that the suggested numerical scheme works very well, and the simulation results of both hydraulic characteristics and river bed deformation are in good agreement with the observed ones.

THE LOWER EOCENE RODA SANDSTONE (SOUTH-CENTRAL PYRENEES):AN EXAMPLE OF A FLOOD-DOMINATED RIVER-DELTA SYSTEMIN A TECTONICALLY CONTROLLED BASIN

The lower Eocene Roda Sandstone (Figols Group, south-central Pyrenees) mainly consists of mouth bars and delta-front sandstone lobes deposited in a flood-dominated river-delta system. The deposition of these bodies was strongly controlled by an interaction between flood-dominated gravity flows entering seawater, topographic confinement and tidal currents. The Roda Sandstone is made up of six depositional sequences of different hierarchical order each of which is characterized by a basal deltaic sandstone wedge (R1 to R6) that passes upward into a siltstone and mudstone interval. Each basal deltaic sandstone wedge is composed of three types of facies association and respective facies tract ( sensu Mutti 1992) that, from proximal to distal zones, are indicated as T1, T2 and T3. These three facies tracts are created by the downcurrent evolution of different types of sediment-laden stream flows entering seawater and related hyperpycnal flows. Their deposits are constituted by three different types of coarse-grained mouth bars and corresponding fine-grained delta-front sandstone lobes. The tidal influence is present in facies tract T3 in the R5 and R6 sandstone units, where the passage between flood-dominated mouth bars and the delta-front sandstone lobes occurs through intermediate facies characterized by different types of sigmoidal-cross stratification whose meaning will be discussed. The basal deltaic sandstone wedges of Roda sandstone are characterized by a progressive forestepping culminating in the R6 unit that erodes the underlying R5 unit and by an overlying backstepping unit indicated as R7. The erosive surface at the base of R6 unit is interpreted as a sequence boundary that divides the Roda Sandstone into two parts: 1) an underlying highstand system tract (HST) and falling stage system tract (FSST) (units R1 to R5) and 2) an overlying low-stand delta (the R6 unit) that passes upward into highstand mudstone through a transgressive system tract represented by the R7 unit. Pdf

Influence of sediment drift accumulation on the passage of gravity-driven sediment flows in the Iceland Basin, NE Atlantic

The Maury Channel is a deep-sea sediment transport system located in the Iceland Basin and extends from the Icelandic plateau southwards towards the Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone (CGFZ). This study has utilised multibeam bathymetry and multi-channel seismic reflection survey data along 480 km of its 1200 km pathway. In the northern reach of the channel it is predominantly broad (>20 km) and shallow (∼10 m). Further to the south the channel narrows (5–10 km) and locally deepens to 150 m prior to finally discharging onto the Eriador Plain to the north of the CGFZ. DSDP Site 115 in the Iceland Basin can provide insight into the evolution of the system as it sampled a suite of volcaniclastic turbidites of unequivocal Icelandic provenance. This sequence produces distinct amplitude anomalies on seismic reflection profiles allowing it to be mapped over an area of at least 26,000 km 2. The southern edge of the high velocity unit is delimited by onlap onto the flanks of the Miocene (and younger) Gardar Drift. The drift appears to have initially acted as a barrier to southerly flows and promoted ponding of flows in the Maury Fan. Continued sediment supply from Iceland eventually filled the Maury Fan leading to the overspilling of the Gardar Drift dam. A result was the initiation of the Maury Channel. To the south of the drift, where the seabed is steep, flows are confined to the channel, whereas to the north of the drift, where the gradient is less, unconfined flow pathways dominate. The Maury Channel system highlights the interaction between turbidity currents and bottom currents on abyssal plains. The growth of sediment drifts not only mould the seafloor through their bathymetric development but also, through the building of seafloor topography, influence the passage and behaviour of gravity-driven sediment-laden flows along the seafloor.

Numerical modeling of heavy metal pollutant transport-transformation in fluvial rivers

On the basis of comprehensively reviewing existing mathematical models, a mathematical model describing heavy metal transport-transformation (dynamics) in its entity in fluvial rivers has been worked out by using basic principals of environmental chemistry, hydraulics and mechanics of sediment transport and recent developments obtained by pioneers, and especially by the authors. Effects of sediment transport on heavy metal pollutant transport-transformation are clarified through two examples. Specifically, the transport-transformation of heavy metal pollutants in a steady, uniform equilibrium sediment-laden flow is calculated by applying this model, and the results are shown to be rational. Results of theoretical analysis and calculations indicate that the transport-transformation of heavy metal pollutants in sediment-laden flows possesses not only the generality of common tracer pollutants, but also characteristics of transport-transformation induced by sediment motion

Analysis of the Vertical Profile of Concentration in Sediment-Laden Flows

From a theoretical investigation of the sediment concentration distribution in sediment-laden flows, a relationship between the profile of sediment concentration and the intensity of vertical fluctuation of particles was established and indirectly verified using experimental data obtained in a vertical rectangular duct flow. It is shown that sediment suspension and the profile of sediment concentration are significantly influenced by the particle fluctuation. This leads to a new explanation for the mechanism of two patterns of sediment concentration profiles.

A mechanic–electronic sensor for automatic measurement of sediment-laden flow rate from erosion runoff plots

Erosion and hillslope surface/subsurface hydrology studies are in need of temporal measurement of flow rates, where sediment-laden runoff normally presents. A new method/sensor capable of taking automatic measurements of sediment-laden runoff flow rates is presented. Mechanical structures, hydraulic backgrounds and computational principles of the suggested sensor are discussed in details. Theoretical-analysis of surface hydraulic formed the basis for formulating a function for calibration of the sensor to clear water flow. A functional relationship was derived for adjustment of flow rates of sediment-laden water. Calibration experiments validated the hydraulic relationship between the flow rate of clear water and the sensor’s outputs. The adjustment function of flow rate produced highly accurate measurements of sediment-laden runoff. Applications of the newly-developed flow senor to a laboratory watershed exposed to rainfall evens of both constant and variable intensities demonstrate that the sensor is highly accurate and capable of taking continuous measurements of the transient hydrographic processes of runoff. The accuracy and reliability of the flow device with labor and time saving advantages will be useful in hillslope hydrological monitoring for research and other purposes.

Flow‐Through Rates and Evaluation of Solids Separation of Compost Filter Socks versus Silt Fence in Sediment Control Applications

Soil loss rates from construction sites can be 1000 times the average of natural soil erosion rates and 20 times that from agricultural lands. Silt fence (SF) is the current industry standard used to control sediment originating from construction activities. Silt fences are designed to act as miniature detention ponds. Research has indicated that SF sediment filtering efficiency is related to its ability to detain and pond water, not necessarily the filtration ability of the fabric. Design capacity and spacing is based on flow-through rate and design height. In addition, increased detention of runoff and pressure from ponding may increase the likelihood of overtopping or failure of SF in field application. Testing was conducted on compost silt socks (SS) and SF to determine sediment filtering efficiency, flow-through rate, ponding depth, overtopping point, design height, and design capacity. Results indicate flow-through rate changes with time, as does ponding depth, due to the accumulation of solids on/in the sediment filters. Changes in depth with time were a linear function of flow rate after 10 min of flow, up to the time the sediment filter is overtopped. Predicting the capacity of SF and SS to handle runoff without the filter being overtopped requires consideration of both runoff rate and length of runoff time. Data show SS half the heights of SF were less likely to overtop than SF when sediment-laden runoff water flow rates are less than 1.03 L(-1) s(-1) m(-1) (5 gpm/ft, gal per minute per lineal foot). Ponded depth behind a 61.0-cm (24 in) SF increased more rapidly than behind a 30.5-cm diam. (12 in) SS, and at the end of the thirty minutes, the depth behind the SF was 75% greater than that behind the SS. Removal of solids by the SF and the SS were not shown to be statistically different. Results were used to create a Microsoft Excel-based interactive design tool to assist engineers and erosion and sediment control planners on how to specify compost SS relative to SF in perimeter sediment control applications.

Climatic and Tectonic Signature in the Fluvial Infill of a Late Pliocene Valley (Siena Basin, Northern Apennines, Italy)

Abstract Incised valleys entirely filled with fluvial deposits are rarely described in the literature, and even rarer are accounts of incised valleys whose filling is not driven by relative sea-level changes. Valleys of this type have not been widely recognized in the stratigraphic record, because they are likely to occur in areas undergoing intense erosion or to be encased within alluvial deposits with no strong lithologic contrast. In this paper, an upper Pliocene fluvial valley fill, encased within shallow marine middle Pliocene deposits and pre-Neogene bedrock (eastern Siena Basin, Northern Apennines, Italy) and accumulated in response to tectonics and climate changes, is described. The recognition of this fluvial body (up to 40 m thick) in an incised-valley setting is based on its overall geometry, lithofacies characteristics, gravel composition, and fossil content. Upvalley fill is represented by amalgamated gravels emplaced by heavily sediment-laden flows, whereas downvalley fill shows a more organized depositional style and consists of two fining-upward successions. Notable is the presence at the top of the lower succession of decameter-thick floodplain fines, which extend from one valley wall to another and have no fine-grained correlatives in the upvalley fill. Valley incision resulted from a drop in relative sea level, arising from late middle Pliocene regional uplift. Stratigraphic and paleontological data constrain valley filling to the late Pliocene–early Pleistocene time span. Such a filling stemmed from an increase in sediment supply, which resulted from the interplay between uplift of the Chianti Ridge and a climatic change toward humid conditions, as recorded in the coeval strata of the adjacent Valdarno Basin. Beyond the regional significance, an important implication of the case study is that the incision and filling factors need not be genetically related. Moreover, the stratigraphic architecture of the studied fluvial fill is discussed in terms of the relations between sediment supply and sediment storage en route from the source area to the depositional site and their association with tectonic movements. Specifically, the valley-wide floodplain fines are thought to record the response of the fluvial system to a tectonic rejuvenation of catchments, which modified the valley gradient and promoted upstream gravel storage, whereas the overlying gravels manifest the reestablishment of a new equilibrium river profile.

Quantitative approach to influences of high sediment laden inundation flows on the morphological variation of floodplains

This article mainly aims at developing an integrated 2-D numerical simulation model on inundation, sediment transportation and the morphological variations of floodplains due to high sediment-laden inundation flows. Due to the complexity of inner and outer boundaries and the arbitrary structures within the computational domain of floodplains, an unstructured Finite-Volume Method (FVM) based on an irregular polygon mesh was worked out so that the influences of complex boundaries can be integrated into the simulation. A case study was conducted in the Lower Yellow River Basin, in which a dike-break at the Huayuankou Hydrological Station was assumed to happen when a flood scale of 1982 was suffered in the region. The simulated spatial distribution of sediment deposition and erosion can be used to reasonably explain the natural phenomena of “suspended river” of the lower part of the Yellow River. It is concluded that the inundation process of water is similar to a variable-river-bed condition during the simulation because the sediment deposition and erosion are modified by new values at the end of each time step. The mass and momentum conservation were strictly followed during the simulation. Therefore, the prediction of floodplain evolutions by the integrated simulation model, proposed in this study, can be adequately and accurately given if the real condition of an floodplain can be obtained in detail.

Mechanism and prediction of material abrasion in high-velocity sediment-laden flow

The wall surface of material is prone to silt abrasion by high-velocity sediment-laden flow. The silt abrasion is different form cavitation erosion. In this article, the characteristics of silt abrasion were discussed. The mechanism of silt abrasion was analyzed and the formation and development of ripple shape on wall surface of material were explained thereafter. Based on turbulence theory and test data, some formulas were derived for predicting the abrasion rate of concrete wall surface in high-velocity sediment-laden flow. The calculated results show good agreement with the experimental data.

Flushing submarine canyons

The continental slope is a steep, narrow fringe separating the coastal zone from the deep ocean. During low sea-level stands, slides and dense, sediment-laden flows erode the outer continental shelf and the continental slope, leading to the formation of submarine canyons that funnel large volumes of sediment and organic matter from shallow regions to the deep ocean(1). During high sea-level stands, such as at present, these canyons still experience occasional sediment gravity flows(2-5), which are usually thought to be triggered by sediment failure or river flooding. Here we present observations from a submarine canyon on the Gulf of Lions margin, in the northwest Mediterranean Sea, that demonstrate that these flows can also be triggered by dense shelf water cascading (DSWC)-a type of current that is driven solely by seawater density contrast. Our results show that DSWC can transport large amounts of water and sediment, reshape submarine canyon floors and rapidly affect the deep-sea environment. This cascading is seasonal, resulting from the formation of dense water by cooling and/or evaporation, and occurs on both high- and low-latitude continental margins(6-8). DSWC may therefore transport large amounts of sediment and organic matter to the deep ocean. Furthermore, changes in the frequency and intensity of DSWC driven by future climate change may have a significant impact on the supply of organic matter to deep-sea ecosystems and on the amount of carbon stored on continental margins and in ocean basins.

The September 8–9, 1998 Rain-Triggered Flood Events at Motozintla, Chiapas, Mexico

In September 1998 tropical storm “Earl” swept southern Mexico, producing intense rainfall in the states of Oaxaca and Chiapas. Among the most devastated cities was Motozintla, located in the drainage basin of the Allende, La Mina and Xelaju Grande Rivers. The rainfall from the tropical storm totaled 175 mm on September 8 and 130 mm on September 9, duplicating in two days the average monthly precipitation in the region. Numerous landslides occurred in the vicinity of Motozintla, depositing large volumes of material into the Xelaju Grande stream. Much of this sediment was subsequently remobilized, yielding debris flows, hyperconcentrated flows, and sediment-laden flows that inundated most sections of Motozintla city. The flows covered an approximate area of 3.15 km2 with a minimum volume of 4.4 × 106 m3 of sediment. Communication of Motozintla with the rest of the Chiapas State was interrupted for about a month, as was the supply of potable water, food, electricity, and fuel. The geologic record around Motozintla indicates that the Xelaju Grande River has been a pathway for similar large floods during the last 6000 years. The oldest deposit yielded a radiocarbon age of 5320 ± 100 14C years. B.P. At least two historic floods have occurred during the last 100 years, a time period defined by a stratigraphically distinct tephra of 1902. Frequency analysis of the historical record of daily rainfall in the Motozintla area suggests that events like that of September, 1998, have a recurrence interval of about 25 years. After the catastrophic flows of 1998, the mitigation measures by Municipal Authorities were made without regard to geological and environmental factors, or to taking into consideration the flow magnitude and appropriate hazard-mitigation techniques, with the result that Motozintla remains at serious risk for future floods. Unfortunately, prior to the publication of this study, in early October 2005, Motozintla was seriously damaged again by intense rain provoked by Hurricane Stan.

A modelling and 3-D simulation system for water erosion on hillslopes—M3DSSWEH

In this paper, mathematically dialectical logic (MDL)-based modelling idea is discussed. One example of MDL-based erosion model, RSIMWEH, and particle system and metaball technology are integrated into a software system, M3DSSWEH, which has been designed and developed based on the platform of Oracle, Visual C++ and OpenGL to simulate the process of rainfall, overland flow and soil erosion. A case study in China Loess Plateau region shows that the accuracy of RSIMWEH is high and M3DSSWEH can efficiently represent pixel-based sediment-laden flow and soil loss over space and time

Partitioning resistance to overland flow on rough mobile beds

AbstractFor overland flows transporting predominantly bed load over rough mobile beds without rainfall, resistance to flow f may be divided into four components: surface resistance fs, form resistance ff, wave resistance fw, and bed‐mobility resistance fm. In this study it is assumed that f = fs + ff + fw + fm, and an equation is developed for each component. The equations for fs and ff are borrowed from the literature, while those for fw and fm are developed from two series of flume experiments in which the beds are covered with various concentrations of large‐scale roughness elements. The first series consists of 65 experiments on fixed beds, while the second series contains 194 experiments on mobile beds. All experiments were performed on the same slope (S = 0·114) and with the same size of sediment (D = 0·00074 m). The equations for fw and fm are derived by a combination of dimensional analysis and regression analysis. The analyses reveal that the major controls of fw and fm are the Froude number F and the concentration of the roughness elements Cr. When the equations for fw and fm are summed, the Cr terms cancel out, leaving fw+m = 0·63F−2. An equation is developed that predicts total f, and the contributions of fs, ff, fw and fm to f are computed from the series 1 and 2 experiments. An analysis of the first series reveals that in clear‐water flows over fixed beds, fw accounts for 52 per cent of f. A similar analysis of the second series indicates that in sediment‐laden flows over mobile beds fw comprises 37 per cent and fm 32 per cent of f, so that together fw and fm account for almost 70 per cent of f. Finally, regression analyses indicate that where F > 0·5, fw and fm each vary with F−2 and fw/fm = 1·18. The equation developed here for predicting total f applies only to the range of hydraulic, sediment, and bed roughness conditions represented by the experimental data. With additional data from a broader range of conditions the same methodology as employed here could be used to develop a more general equation. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

VELOCITY AND CONCENTRATION DISTRIBUTIONS IN SEDIMENT-MIXED FLUID: AN APPROACH WITH MIXING LENGTH CONCEPT

ABSTRACT Mathematical models have been developed to predict the vertical velocity and sediment concentration distributions in a sediment-laden turbulent open channel flow taking into account a modified mixing length based on sediment-induced stratification. The coupled non-linear differential equations for vertical velocity and concentration arising out of the problem have been solved numerically and the results have been compared with the comprehensive exiting data. Comparison shows good agreement with the observed data, which proves the validity of the present model.