Influence of Fine Sediment on the Fluidity of Debris Flows

Debris flows include a great diversity of grain sizes with inherent features such as inverse grading, particle size segregation, and liquefaction of fine sediment. The liquefaction of fine sediment affects the fluidity of debris flows, although the behavior and influence of fine sediment in debris flows have not been examined sufficiently. This study used flume tests to detect the effect of fine sediment on the fluidity of laboratory debris flows consisting of particles with various diameters. From the experiments, the greatest sediment concentration and flow depth were observed in the debris flows mixed with fine sediment indicating increased flow resistance. The experimental friction coefficient was then compared with the theoretical friction coefficient derived by substituting the experimental values into the constitutive equations for debris flow. The theoretical friction coefficient was obtained from two models with different fine-sediment treatments： assuming that all of the fine sediments were solid particles or that the particles consisted of a fluid phase involving pore water liquefaction. From the comparison of the friction coefficients, a fully liquefaction state was detected for the fine particle mixture. When the mixing ratio and particle size of the fine sediment were different, some other eases were considered to be in a partially liquefied transition state. These results imply that the liquefaction of fine sediment in debris flows was induced not only by the geometric conditions such as particle sizes, but also by the flow conditions.

Analysis on Suspended Sediment Deposition Rate for Muddy Coast of Reclaimed Land

A new expression for calculating suspended fine-sediment deposition rate is developed based on theoretic analysis and experiments. The resulting equation is applied to simulation of fine sediment deposition in the reclaimed land in the Hangzhou Bay, China. The hydrodynamic environment in this area is solved by use of a long wave model, which gives the 2D-velocity field and considers bathymetric changes due to fine sediment deposition. The expression is proved convenient to use in engineering practice, and the predicted deposition rate agrees with the annual data available from field measurements from the first year to the third year after the construction of the long groin as a reclaiming method.

Classification of highly turbid Jiaojiang Estuary

The Jiaoiang Estuary is shallow, macro-tidal dominated and extremely turbid, with a larger variation of the freshwater discharge. The estuarine stratification and classification are analysed by using a set of field data observed in wat season.In spring tide, the depth-mean peak tidal currents can reach 2 m/s. During flood tide the water column is vertically hamogeneous, but the horizontal salinity gradient is large and there is a fresh water front. A 1 m thick fluid mud layer capped by lutocline is formed when the tidal current is less than 0. 3 m/s. As the low-salinity trapped in the fluid mud layer, underlying saltier water enhances vertical mixing when the fluid mud layer is eroded and the water column is only slishily stratified during ebb tide.During neap tide, the tidal currents are reduced, two lutoclines exist in the vertical profile of suspended sediment conentration (SSC ) for a long time and its positive contributions to the water column stability are 17 times larger than tha of maximum salinity gradient observed in our previous study. The water column is stratified and the fresh water front which exists in spring tide is lifted as a salt wedge in neap tide.The dynamics of the fine sediment is so important in the extremely turbid estuary that the estuarine classification does not fit in with the field data when the scheme of the estuarine classification proposed by Schultz and Simons (1957) is applied in the Jiaoiang Estuary.

A three-dimensional modeling of the morphological change in the Liaodong Bay

The morphology in the Liaodong Bay has undergone a marked change over the past decades due to the cutoff of nearby rivers. The fine sediment of the bay consists of both non-cohesive and cohesive fractions with relatively small particles over the seabed. Thus, a three- dimensional morphodynamic model accounting for non- cohesive and cohesive fractions is established to investi- gate the morphological change without sediment input from nearby rivers. A representative wave is chosen to compute the wave distribution in the Liaodong Bay and depth-dependent wave radiation stresses are employed by the hydrodynamic model. The advection-diffusion equa- tion is used to simulate the fine sediment transport under the representative wave and tidal currents. The erosion flux of non-cohesive and cohesive sediment is taken into account. The simulated results of tidal level, velocities, directions, and sediment concentrations are in agreement with the measured data. The results demonstrate that the present model, which takes the erosion flux of both non- cohesive and cohesive fractions into account, gives more reasonable values than when accounting for cohesive sediment alone. When the three-dimensional morphody- namic model is applied to predict morphological change over the course of a year, the deposition is shown to be relatively small and the range of the erosion is increased compared to previous results of sediment input from the river. It can be concluded that the erosion in the Liaodong Bay is increasing due to the cutoff of the river, and that morphological evolution must be taken into account if any type of coastal construction plans are to be carried out over the seabed.