Unimodal Sediments Research Articles

Autogenic Formation of Bimodal Grain Size Distributions in Rivers and Its Contribution to Gravel‐Sand Transitions

AbstractRiverbeds often fine downstream, with a gravel‐bedded reach, a relatively abrupt gravel‐sand transition (GST), and a sand‐bedded reach. Underlying this behavior, bed grain size distributions are often bimodal, with a relative paucity (gap) around the range 1–5 mm. There is no general morphodynamic model capable of producing the grain size gap and gravel‐sand transition autogenically from a unimodal sediment supply. Here we use a one‐dimensional morphodynamic model including size‐specific bedload and suspended load transport, to show that bimodality readily evolves autogenically even under unimodal sediment feed. A GST forms when we include a floodplain width that abruptly increases at some point. Upstream of the transition, non‐gap gravel ceases to move and gap sediment is preferentially transported. At the transition, non‐gap sand rapidly deposits from suspension, enhancing gap sediment mobility and diluting its presence on the bed.

Camera-measured velocity distribution in laboratory open-channel flow with intense transport of bimodal combined-load

Abstract An extended stereoscopic method, which identifies, and tracks particles based on their colour in solid-liquid flow, is tested for its capability to separately measure velocity distributions of particles of two fractions transported as bimodal sediment mixture in water flow through a laboratory flume. The principle of the tested method extension is a use of colour-based processing of images collected by two high-speed cameras which enables to filter out particles of one fraction from the image and leave particles of the other fraction in the image based on a selected colour hue range. The modified images are then processed by the original stereoscopic method to produce velocity distribution of particles of the individual fraction in the flow. The method extension is first tested in simple vertical flow carrying neutrally buoyant spherical particles of two distinct colours in a recirculation cell. In the next step, lightweight plastic particles of two fractions of different properties (size, shape, density) and colours are introduced to flow through a laboratory flume and velocity distributions of the two fractions are measured separately at flow conditions which mimic intense transport of bimodal combined-load in an open channel. Results exhibit a very good agreement with previous measurements with unimodal sediment in hydraulically similar flow.

Characteristics and selective mobility of bedload sheets

Bedform-driven flux is a fundamental component of bedload transport along riverbeds, resulting in unsteady transport rates. For bedload sheets, these fluctuations emerge through the preferential sorting of coarser grains in the leading front of the bedform. This study establishes key characteristics of bedload sheets formed in a sand-dominated unimodal sediment and, using fractional transport rates, determines the state of grain mobility to evaluate a proposed bedform regime (Venditti et al., 2017). A series of 10 flume experiments were executed using a water-worked sediment bed, with Shields numbers ranging from 0.037 to 0.15. Sediment supply was set by operating the flume in sediment recirculation mode. For each run bedform dimensions and migration rate were measured as well as hydraulic conditions. Sampling and analysis of bedload and bed sediment were used to derive fractional transport rates and grain size distributions to determine scaled transport rates and transport-supply ratios. Bedload sampling partitioned transport into bedload sheets and the load between sheets. Bedload sheets initially formed at a Shields number equal to 0.056 and persisted to a value of 0.13. Over this range, sheets grew in size and frequency, migrated faster, and produced elevated bedload transport rates that were consistently coarser than the flux between sheets. Scaled transport rates indicate selective mobility when sheets existed but this state of grain mobility does not uniquely define bedload sheets. Nonetheless, the mobility of larger grains relative to those in the surface sediment and the sediment supply conditions during runs fall within the bounds that define bedload sheets in the bedform regime diagram evaluated. Incorporating these conditions for bedload sheets into fractional bedload transport rates could improve predictions of bedload fluxes.

Granulometric and facies analysis of Middle–Upper Jurassic rocks of Ler Dome, Kachchh, western India: an attempt to reconstruct the depositional environment

AbstractGrain size analysis is an important sedimentological tool used to unravel hydrodynamic conditions, mode of transportation and deposition of detrital sediments. For the present study, detailed grain size analysis was carried out in order to decipher the palaeodepositional environment of Middle–Upper Jurassic rocks of the Ler Dome (Kachchh, western India), which is further reinforced by facies analysis. Microtextures were identified as grooves, straight steps and V-shaped pits, curved steps and solution pits suggesting the predominance of chemical solution activity. Grain size statistical parameters (Graphic and Moment parameters) were used to document depositional processes, sedimentation mechanisms and conditions of hydrodynamic energy, as well as to discriminate between various depositional environments. The grain size parameters show that most of the sandstones are medium- to coarse-grained, moderately to well sorted, strongly fine skewed to fine skewed and mesokurtic to platykurtic in nature. The abundance of medium- to coarse-grained sandstones indicates fluctuating energy levels of the deposition medium and sediment type of the source area. The bivariate plots show that the samples are mostly grouped, except for some samples that show a scattered trend, which is either due to a mixture of two modes in equal proportion in bimodal sediments or good sorting in unimodal sediments. The linear discriminant function analysis is predominantly indicative of turbidity current deposits under shallow-marine conditions. The C-M plots indicate that the sediments formed mainly by rolling to bottom suspension and rolling condition in a beach subenvironment. Log probability curves show that the mixing between the suspension and saltation populations is related to variable energy conditions.

Effect of Flood Hydrograph Duration, Magnitude, and Shape on Bed Load Transport Dynamics

AbstractBed load sediment transport is an inherently challenging process to measure within a river, which is further complicated by the typically transient nature of the hydrograph. Here we use laboratory experiments to explore how sediment flux under transient—unsteady and intermittent—flow differ from those under steady flow. For a narrow unimodal sediment distribution, we calculated fluid stress and measured sediment flux for a range of hydrograph durations, magnitudes, shapes, and sequences. Within a hydrograph, we find considerable variability in sediment flux for a given stress above the threshold for motion. However, cumulative bed load flux resulting from a flood scales linearly with the integrated excess transport capacity (flow impulse). This scaling indicates that, to first order, flow magnitude, duration, shape, and sequence are only relevant to bed load flux in terms of their contribution to the total flow impulse, in agreement with prior field results. The flood impulse represents a quantitative parameter through which the effects of transient flow on coarse sediment transport may be parsed.

Grain size statistics and depositional pattern of the Ecca Group sandstones, Karoo Supergroup in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

AbstractGrain size analysis is a vital sedimentological tool used to unravel the hydrodynamic conditions, mode of transportation and deposition of detrital sediments. In this study, detailed grain-size analysis was carried out on thirty-five sandstone samples from the Ecca Group in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Grain-size statistical parameters, bivariate analysis, linear discriminate functions, Passega diagrams and log-probability curves were used to reveal the depositional processes, sedimentation mechanisms, hydrodynamic energy conditions and to discriminate different depositional environments. The grain-size parameters show that most of the sandstones are very fine to fine grained, moderately well sorted, mostly near-symmetrical and mesokurtic in nature. The abundance of very fine to fine grained sandstones indicate the dominance of low energy environment. The bivariate plots show that the samples are mostly grouped, except for the Prince Albert samples that show scattered trend, which is due to the either mixture of two modes in equal proportion in bimodal sediments or good sorting in unimodal sediments. The linear discriminant function analysis is dominantly indicative of turbidity current deposits under shallow marine environments for samples from the Prince Albert, Collingham and Ripon Formations, while those samples from the Fort Brown Formation are lacustrine or deltaic deposits. The C-M plots indicated that the sediments were deposited mainly by suspension and saltation, and graded suspension. Visher diagrams show that saltation is the major process of transportation, followed by suspension.

Experimental investigations of graded sediment transport under unsteady flow hydrographs

Natural fluvial channels can experience significant variations in sediment transport rates under unsteady flow conditions, especially during flood hydrograph events. At present, however, there is a distinct lack of understanding of the interaction between unsteady hydrograph flow properties and temporal variability in graded sediment transport rates. In the current study, a series of parametric experiments were conducted to investigate the response of two-graded sediment beds to a range of different unsteady hydrograph flow conditions. Investigations of the total and fractional bed-load sediment transport rates revealed strong temporal variations in transport over the hydrographs, with size-dependent temporal lag effects observed between peak flow conditions and peak bed-load transport rates. Specifically, coarse gravels had increased mobility during the rising limb of the hydrographs, attaining their peak bed-load transport rate either prior to, or near, peak flow conditions. By contrast, the finer grades tended to have enhanced mobility during the receding limb of the hydrographs, with peak transport rates measured after peak flow conditions had passed. Grain size distributions measured from the collected bed-load samples also indicated material coarsening over the rising limb and fining during the receding limb, while corresponding image analysis measurements of bed surface composition showed only marginal variation over the hydrographs. Computation of total and fractional sediment yields revealed that the bimodal sediment mixture tested was transported at significantly higher rates than the uni-modal mixture over all hydrograph conditions tested. This finding indicated that the uni-modal sediment bed was inherently more stable than the bimodal bed due to the increased abundance of medium-sized gravels present in the uni-modal sediment grade. The parametric dependences established in the study have clear implications for improved understanding of fractional inter-granular effects at the bed surface and their influence on graded sediment transport processes within natural fluvial channels under flood flow hydrographs.

한국 서해안 돌기해삼(Stichopus japonicus)의 서식지 기질 특성

We analyzed surface sediments to explain the substrate characteristics of sea cucumber Stichopus japonicus habitat. The analyses included grain-size determination, water content (WC), loss on ignition (IL), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and acid volatile sulfide (AVS) content. We obtained data on sea cucumber density, weight, and length at each station in a marine farming area in the middle of Korea's Taean coast on the West (Yellow) Sea in May, 2012. The apparent density of S. japonicus was high in coarse and bimodal sediments, whereas it was low in fine and unimodal sediments. The mass of S. japonicus was greater in fine than in coarse sediments, showing a different trend from sea cucumber density. The values for WC, IL, COD, and AVS in surface sediments were higher in areas with high densities of S. japonicus than in areas with low sea cucumber densities. In particular, the concentration of AVS was much higher than the value proposed in Japanese criteria for areas with high S. japonicus density.

On the Stabilizing Influence of Silt On Sand Beds

Abstract In marine environments, sediments from different sources are stirred and dispersed, generating beds that are composed of mixed and layered sediments of differing grain sizes. Traditional engineering formulations used to predict erosion thresholds are however, generally for unimodal sediment distributions, and so may be inadequate for commonly occurring coastal sediments. We tested the transport behavior of deposited and mixed sediment beds consisting of a simplified two-grain fraction (silt (D50 = 55 µm) and sand (D50 = 300 µm)) in a laboratory-based annular flume with the objective of investigating the parameters controlling the stability of a sediment bed. To mimic recent deposition of particles following large storm events and the longer-term result of the incorporation of fines in coarse sediment, we designed two suites of experiments: (1) “the layering experiment”: in which a sandy bed was covered by a thin layer of silt of varying thickness (0.2–3 mm; 0.5–3.7 wt %, dry weight in a layer 10 cm deep); and (2) “the mixing experiment” where the bed was composed of sand homogeneously mixed with small amounts of silt (0.07–0.7 wt %, dry weight). To initiate erosion and to detect a possible stabilizing effect in both settings, we increased the flow speeds in increments up to 0.30 m/s. Results showed that the sediment bed (or the underlying sand bed in the case of the layering experiment) stabilized with increasing silt composition. The increasing sediment stability was defined by a shift of the initial threshold conditions towards higher flow speeds, combined with, in the case of the mixed bed, decreasing erosion rates. Our results show that even extremely low concentrations of silt play a stabilizing role (1.4% silt (wt %) on a layered sediment bed of 10 cm thickness). In the case of a mixed sediment bed, 0.18% silt (wt %, in a sample of 10 cm depth) stabilized the bed. Both cases show that the depositional history of the sediment fractions can change the erosion characteristics of the seabed. These observations are summarized in a conceptual model that suggests that, in addition to the effect on surface roughness, silt stabilizes the sand bed by pore-space plugging and reducing the inflow in the bed, and hence increases the bed stability. Measurements of hydraulic conductivity on similar bed assemblages qualitatively supported this conclusion by showing that silt could decrease the permeability by up to 22% in the case of a layered bed and by up to 70% in the case of a mixed bed.

Bed topography and the development of forced bed surface patches

Channel topography in gravel‐bedded rivers interacts with the local flow and sediment transport fields to produce “forced patches,” which are temporally stable areas on the bed that display similar grain size and sorting. In an effort to enhance our empirical understanding of the mechanisms responsible for the formation of forced patches, we conducted a near‐field scale flume experiment in which a large (55 m long, 2.74 m wide), straight, sediment recirculating flume was provided a constant water discharge and a unimodal sediment mixture ranging in size from 2 to 45 mm. A sequence of alternate bars developed and became essentially fixed in space, producing quasi‐steady state bed topography over which we made measurements of local near‐bed velocity and sediment transport. The bed developed temporally and spatially persistent forced patches with a general pattern of coarse bar tops and fine pools, which we characterized by visual mapping and with the application of an automated image processing procedure to a high‐resolution (1 × 1 mm) digital elevation model of the bed surface. The boundary shear stress field, calculated from velocity measurements and with a quasi‐three‐dimensional hydraulic model (FaSTMECH), displayed substantial variability across the bar unit. Bed surface grain size did not correlate with local boundary shear stress; instead, topographically forced divergences in the boundary shear stress field were matched by divergences in the sediment transport field. The resultant cross‐stream sediment flux was size‐selective that in turn forced a bed surface textural response leading to coarse bar tops and fine pools. Our observations suggest that size‐selective cross‐stream bed load transport is a mechanism responsible for the development of forced bed surface patches in gravel bed channels that have topographically forced heterogeneous flow fields.

Downstream fining in large sand-bed rivers

Downstream fining of bed sediments is a well-known phenomenon in gravel-bed rivers, but also occurs in (large) sand-bed rivers. The underlying processes, however, are not necessarily the same, due to the difference in sediment mobility, grain-size distribution width and geographical setting. Downstream fining studies focusing on large sand-bed rivers are scarce, nevertheless. In this paper, the processes that affect downstream fining in gravel-bed rivers are reviewed, and it is evaluated to what extent they are relevant for large sand-bed rivers. Furthermore, several ‘new’ downstream fining processes are discussed, ending in a conceptual model of downstream fining in large sand-bed rivers. In deriving the conceptual model, downstream fining processes are divided into three categories: abrasion, selective transport and sediment addition–extraction. Abrasion rates in large sand-bed rivers are small due to the durable lithologies, the small grain size, the high degree of rounding, the dominance of grinding as abrasion process and the dominant suspended transport mode of the bed sediment. Only in the upstream part of large sand-bed rivers, abrasion rates may be somewhat higher. Selective transport rates in large sand-bed rivers everywhere overrun abrasion rates, but are small compared to selective transport rates in gravel-bed rivers, because the unimodal sediments in sand-bed rivers exhibit stronger hiding-exposure effects during threshold-of-motion conditions, but especially because many sand-bed rivers (though not all) are in state of fully mobilised transport, making differences in threshold of motion between coarse and fine grains relatively unimportant. Selective transport in these rivers is probably mainly the result of the presence of suspended load transport in combination with the effects of dune and perhaps bend sorting, which are all processes that act on a relatively large scale. Within sand-bed rivers, the degree of selective transport probably decreases downstream due to the change in mixture bimodality and sorting efficiency. There are indications that coarse grains may sometimes even be more mobile than fine grains in the downstream part of sand-bed rivers. Note that in contrast to abrasion, selective transport only produces a ‘stable’ downstream fining pattern if the river profile is concave. Generally, a stronger profile concavity leads to a higher aggradation rate and a stronger downstream fining trend. Sediment addition and extraction processes can obscure the effects of abrasion and selective transport in sand-bed rivers. Overbank sedimentation, for instance, may significantly decrease the downstream fining rate in large sand-bed rivers, because especially fine grains are removed from the bed. Dredging can also strongly affect the downstream fining trend, depending on the volume and the grain size of the sediment involved. Meander migration may cause a nett loss of coarse grains from the channel in aggrading circumstances, increasing the downstream fining rate. River bifurcations can cause a discontinuity in the downstream fining pattern, because bend sorting upstream of the bifurcation causes the river branch that originates in the outer bend of the main channel to be much coarser than the other branch. All these addition and extraction processes not only have a direct effect on the grain-size composition of the river bed, but also indirectly influence downstream fining by their effect on the longitudinal bed profile. Other sediment addition and extraction processes, such as tributary confluences, non-alluvial sediment sources and dumping are less common in large sand-bed rivers, but can locally have a great effect. A full determination of the relative importance of all downstream fining processes in large sand-bed rivers requires extensive field measurements, the construction of detailed, fractionwise sediment balances and the development of numerical downstream fining models that incorporate all processes described above.

Critical Shear Stress of Bimodal Sediment in Sand-Gravel Rivers

A new model for the critical shear stress and the transport of graded sediment is presented. The model is based on the size distribution of the bed surface and can be used to compute sediment transport rates in numerical simulations with an active layer model. This model makes a distinction between unimodal and bimodal sediments. It is assumed that all size fractions of unimodal sediments have the same critical shear stress while there is selective transport for the gravel fractions of bimodal sediments. A recently published laboratory transport data set is used to calibrate our model.

Probabilistic Modeling of Bed-Load Composition

This paper proposes that the changes which occur in composition of the bed load during the transport of mixed-grain-size sediments are largely controlled by the distributions of critical entrainment shear stress for the various size fractions. This hypothesis is examined for a unimodal sediment mixture by calculating these distributions with a discrete particle model and using them in a probabilistic calculation of bed-load composition. The estimates of bed-load composition compare favorably with observations of fractional transport rates made in a laboratory flume for the same sediment, suggesting that the hypothesis is reasonable. The analysis provides additional insight, in terms of grain mechanics, into the processes that determine bed-load composition. These insights strongly suggest that better prediction methods will result from taking account of the variation of threshold within size fractions, something that most previous studies have neglected.

Bedload Transport in Gravel-Bed Streams with Unimodal Sediment

Bedload transport in many gravel-bed streams becomes highly complicated because of the nonuniformity of the grain size and the vertical stratification of channel bed material. A new relation for computing bedload transport rates in gravel-bed streams is proposed here. In an effort to account for the variation of the makeup of the surface material within a wide range of Shields stresses, the relation employs a two-parameter approach, one related to the material in the pavement and the other to that in the subpavement layers. The mode is used to represent the grain sizes of each layer. Available bedload transport data from gravel-bed streams with unimodal sediment are used to test the accuracy of the relation. A comparison with other bedload transport relations is also considered.

Grain size distribution expressed as tanh‐functions

ABSTRACTThe grain size distribution within a unimodal sediment can be described as a lognormal distribution when the distribution is formed by only one process. However, most sediments are formed by more than one process giving polymodal sediments. Polymodal sediments have to be described as the sum of several normal distributions, one for each process involved within the formation.Grain size distributions are usually interpreted with the help of graphical methods. Interpretations of polymodal sediments require mathematical methods. In mathematical terms a unimodal sediment can be described as a tangential hyperbolic function (tanh) and a polymodal sediment can generally be described by the sum of two or three tanh‐functions. The tanh‐method is a tool for identifying and estimating the number of modes within a grain size distribution and helps interpret the processes involved within the formation of a deposit. The mathematical method can also be used to computerize sediment data, allowing storage with just a few numbers. Different samples can easily be compared and classified. Also, this method could be a valuable tool for calculations of various sediment parameters both in geotechnology and hydrogeology.

Coastal sedimentation associated with the June 2nd and 3rd, 1994 tsunami in Rajegwesi, Java

This paper presents the second detailed study of sediments deposited by modern tusnamis, the first being that of the Flores (Indonesia) tsunami of December 1992 (Shi et al., 1995). Sediment cores were collected from areas in which eyewitnesses reported sediment deposition. Grain size analysis shows pronounced vertical variations in grain size as well as changes in standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis that appear to be indicative of complex tsunami flooding. Vertical variations in grain size in individual cores are greater than spatial variations between cores taken along a transect completed perpendicular to the coastline. The Java tsunami-deposited sediments do not show unequivocal evidence of local erosion but instead evidence for sediment transport and deposition is clear and is characterised by dominantly unimodal sediments with fine-tailed distributions.

Jointed Source Rock and Fluvial Gravels Controlled by Rosin's Law: A Grain-Size Study in Calabria, South Italy

The primary distributions of the untransported source rocks are unimodally distributed and very positively skewed; the average sand fraction is only 4%. Only 6% of the distributions are lognormal; 94% follow the Rosin distribution, which is typical for products of technical breakage and milling processes. Twelve of the 19 river-mounth sediments are bimodally distributed with a primary mode in the gravel range, a marked valley in the 2 mm range, and a secondary mode in the sand range. The seven rivers with unimodal sediments also have their modes in the gravel range. Both unimodal bimodal sediments consist of, on the average, 74% boulder and gravel, 25% sand, and 1% silt and clay. Surprisingly, 77% of the gravel modes of the river sediments also follow the Rosin distribution. Only the sand fractions of both the unimodal and bimodal sediments are lognormally distributed. The Rosin distribution of the Calabrian river gravel is interpreted as a source-specific primary feature; the lognormality of the sand mode, in contrast, as a transport-specific secondary feature. Since the jointed and weathered source rocks contain only 4% sand they cannot be the only source of the 25% sand in the river sediments. The sand must also come from other sources such as soil building and transport wear.--Modified journal abstract.

Brazos River bar [Texas]; a study in the significance of grain size parameters

A bar on the Brazos River near Calvert, Texas, has been analyzed in order to determine the geologic meaning of certain grain size parameters and to study the behavior of the size fractions with transport. The bar consists of a strongly bimodal mixture of pebble gravel and medium to fine sand; there is a lack of material in the range of 0.5 to 2 mm, because the source does not supply particles of this size. The size distributions of the two modes, which were established in the parent deposits, are nearly invariant over the bar because the present environment of deposition only affects the relative proportions of the two modes, not the grain size properties of the modes themselves. Two proportions are most common; the sediment either contains no gravel or else contains about 60% gravel. Three sediment types with characteristic bedding features occur on the bar in constant stratigraphic order, with the coarsest at the base. Statistical analysis of the data is based on a series of grain size parameters modified from those of Inman (1952) to provide a more detailed coverage of non-normal size curves. Unimodal sediments have nearly normal curves as defined by their skewness and kurtosis. Non-normal kurtosis and skewness values are held to be the identifying characteristics of bimodal sediments even where such modes are not evident in frequency curves. The relative proportions of each mode define a systematic series of changes in numerical properties; mean size, standard deviation and skewness are shown to be linked in a helical trend, which is believed to be applicable to many other sedimentary suites. The equations of the helix may be characteristic of certain environments. Kurtosis values show rhythmic pulsations along the helix and are diagnostic of two-generation sediments.