Effects of Flocculation on Particle Transport

by Wilbert Lick, (M.ASCE), Univ of California, Santa Barbara, United States,
C. Kirk Ziegler, Univ of California, Santa Barbara, United States,
James Lick, Univ of California, Santa Barbara, United States,
Aruna Joshi, Univ of California, Santa Barbara, United States,



Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: Estuarine and Coastal Modeling

Abstract:

On the basis of previous experimental and theoretical work on flocculation rates and the settling speeds of flocs, an accurate and computationally efficient model of the aggregation and disaggregation of fine-grained sediments has been developed. The model requires only three floc size components, but is capable of describing the flocculation of fine-grained sediments for a wide range of sizes, over three orders of magnitude. The model is here applied to the problem of the transport of fine-grained suspended solids in the flow from a submerged diffuser or a surface discharge into a flow in a channel. The purpose is to illustrate the effects of flocculation on this transport. In the calculations, the flocculation model is coupled with three-dimensional, time-dependent models of the hydrodynamics and particle transport. The effects of the flow rate (turbulence) and initial solids concentration on the total and component solids concentrations and the depositional fluxes are discussed.

Subject Headings: Flocculation | Solids flow | Sediment transport | Sediment | Particles | Fluid flow | Channel flow

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