Skip to main content
ARS Home » Southeast Area » Oxford, Mississippi » National Sedimentation Laboratory » Watershed Physical Processes Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #182486
Title: DISTRIBUTIONS OF VELOCITY, TURBULENCE, AND SUSPENDED SEDIMENT OVER LOW-RELIEF ANTIDUNES

Author
item Wren, Daniel
item BENNETT, SEAN - SUNY BUFFALO
item BARKDOLL, BRIAN - MICHIGAN TECH
item Kuhnle, Roger

Submitted to: Journal of Hydraulic Research IAHR
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/15/2002
Publication Date: 2/1/2005
Citation: Wren, D.G., Bennett, S.J., Barkdoll, B.D., Kuhnle, R.A. 2005. Distributions of velocity, turbulence, and suspended sediment over low-relief antidunes. Journal of Hydraulic Research. 43(1): 3-11.

Interpretive Summary: Proper understanding of the movement of suspended particles in water relies in part on controlled laboratory experiments. In the present work, the application of several theories on flow and sediment transport to a type of flow somewhat different from that for which they were derived was tested. The Law of the Wall, which describes the vertical change in fluid velocity at increasing distances from the channel bottom, a predictive equation for the variation of turbulence intensity with depth, and the Rouse equation, which describes the vertical change in suspended-sediment concentration with depth, were tested. The predictive equations for fluid velocity and turbulence intensity were found to fit the experimental data satisfactorily. Only the Rouse equation required modification for use in the conditionis of the study.

Technical Abstract: Understanding the interactionis between sediment transport and turbulence in a supercritical flow is useful i n the study of river hydraulics and fluvial systems and the modeling of such flows in nature. Towards this end, eleven profiles of suspended-sediment concentration and fluid velocity were collected in supercritical conditions over low-relief antidunes in a recirculating laboratory flume. It was found that velocity profiles agreed well with the law of the wall, and that turbulence intensities were similar to those in clear-water flows. The classic Rouse equation was found to under-predict concentration values in the upper 60 to 80% of the flow depth and a slightly modified version was proposed and successfully tested against experimental data from the present study and others.