Effects of the mixing degree upstream of the diverging area on the pollutant allocation characteristics of a braided river

The mixing degree upstream of the diverging area is one of the important factors influencing the pollutant allocation characteristics of braided rivers,but the effect remains unclear at present.In this paper,physical model tests were designed to study the effect on the pollutant flux ratio with six branching forms and a series of longitudinal discharge distances.The results indicated that the mixing degree upstream of the diverging area,which is closely related to the longitudinal discharge distance,notably affected the pollutant flux ratio.The lower the mixing degree,the larger was the deviation of the pollutant flux ratio from the discharge ratio.Moreover,a linear relationship was attained between the dimensionless mixing degree and the dimensionless deviation of the pollutant flux ratio from the discharge ratio.Consideration of different branching angles or different water layers or different branches did not affect this trend.The experimental results further demonstrated that the intercept and slope of the aforementioned linear relationship depended on the branching angle and exhibited an opposite monotonicity with a symmetric branch angle as the dividing point.These results help towards a better understanding of the mechanism of the factors influencing pollutant transport in complicated braided rivers,and provide a new approach to predicting the pollutant flux ratio of braided rivers.

An investigation of merging and diverging cars on a multi-lane road using a cellular automation model

In this paper, we have investigated two observed situations in a multi-lane road. The first one concerns a fast merging vehicle. The second situation is related to the case of a fast vehicle leaving the fastest lane back into the slowest lane and targeting a specific way out. We are interested in the relaxation time T, i.e., which is the time that the merging （diverging） vehicle spends before reaching the desired lane. Using analytical treatment and numerical simulations for the NaSch model, we have found two states, namely, the free state in which the merging （diverging） vehicle reaches the desired lane, and the trapped state in which T diverges. We have established phase diagrams for several values of the braking probability. In the second situation, we have shown that diverging from the fast lane targeting a specific way out is not a simple task. Even if the diverging vehicle is in the free phase, two different states can be distinguished. One is the critical state, in which the diverging car can probably reach the desired way out. The other is the safe state, in which the diverging car can surely reach the desired way out. In order to be in the safe state, we have found that the driver of the diverging car must know the critical distance （below which the way out will be out of his reach） in each lane. Furthermore, this critical distance depends on the density of cars, and it follows an exponential law.