Flow Modeling in the Toutle River, Washington

by Yasuyuki Shimizu, Hokkaido Development Bureau, Japan,
Randy Dinehart, Hokkaido Development Bureau, Japan,
J. Dungan Smith, Hokkaido Development Bureau, Japan,



Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: Sediment Transport Modeling

Abstract:

In support of flow, suspended load, bed load, and bedform transport measurements, a quasi-three-dimensional river flow model was adapted to a reach extending from 260m upstream to 30m downstream of the primary experimental site. Two topographic studies were carried out to provide basic information on the bed and bank morphologies during normal and low discharge periods. Accuracy of the model predictions was checked using the measured free surface elevation drop over the upstream segment of the experimental reach, and using the velocity measurements procured with a Price current meter deployed from a cable car. Free surface elevation drops predicted with the model using estimated values for the average grain roughness of the bed were consistent with the measured values in spite of occasional large roughness elements such as stumps. Verification of the model with data collected at four different discharges during one year, and with data collected at yet another discharge the next year, after the bed topography had been altered somewhat by high flows during the intervening winter, provides sufficient confidence in the model, as applied to this location, to permit its use to calculate boundary shear stress distributions during the measured low flow conditions, and also to estimate velocity and boundary shear stress fields during unmeasured high flow conditions. Additional aspects of the study are discussed.

Subject Headings: Flow measurement | River flow | Fluid flow | Streamflow | Shear stress | Sediment transport | Rivers and streams | Washington | United States

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