Role of Ponded Turbidity Currents in Reservoir Trap Efficiency
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 133, Issue 6
Abstract
The capacity to store water in a reservoir declines as it traps sediment. A river entering a reservoir forms a prograding delta. Coarse sediment (e.g., sand) deposits in the fluvial topset and avalanching foreset of the delta, and is typically trapped with an efficiency near 100%. The trap efficiency of fine sediment (e.g., mud), on the other hand, may be below 100%, because some of this sediment may pass out of the reservoir without settling out. Here, a model of trap efficiency of mud is developed in terms of the mechanics of a turbidity current that plunges on the foreset. The dam causes a sustained turbidity current to reflect and form a muddy pond bounded upstream by a hydraulic jump. If the interface of this muddy pond rises above any vent or overflow point at the dam, the trap efficiency of mud drops below 100%. A model of the coevolution of topset, foreset, and bottomset in a reservoir that captures the dynamics of the internal muddy pond is presented. Numerical implementation, comparison against an experiment, and application to a field-scale case provide the basis for a physical understanding of the processes that determine reservoir trap efficiency.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This research was partially funded by the Office of Naval Research STRATAFORM Program. It was also partially funded by the National Center for Earth-Surface Dynamics (NCED), which is in turn funded by the Science and Technology Centers (STC) program of the National Science Foundation. This paper represents a contribution to the NCED effort on river restoration.
References
Akiyama, J., and Stefan, H. (1984). “Plunging flow into a reservoir: Theory.” J. Hydraul. Eng., 110(4), 484–499.
Baddour, R. E. (1987). “Hydraulics of shallow and stratified mixing channel.” J. Hydraul. Eng., 113(5), 630–645.
Bell, H. S. (1942). “Stratified flow in reservoirs and its use in preventing silting.” Miscellaneous Publication 491, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.
Brune, G. (1953). “Trap efficiency of reservoirs.” Trans., Am. Geophys. Union, 34(3), 407–418.
Chikita, K. (1989). “A field study on turbidity currents initiated from spring runoffs.” Water Resour. Res., 25(2), 257–271.
De Cesare, G., Schleiss, A., and Hermann, F. (2001). “Impact of turbidity currents on reservoir sedimentation.” J. Hydraul. Eng., 127(1), 6–16.
de Vries, M. (1965). “Consideration about nonsteady bed–load transport in open channels.” Proc., 11th Congress of Int. Assoc. of Hydraulic Engineering and Research (IAHR), Vol. 3, Paper 3.8, IAHR, Madrid, Spain.
Dietrich, E. W. (1982). “Settling velocities of natural particles.” Water Resour. Res., 18(6), 1626–1682.
Engelund, F., and Hansen, E. (1972). A monograph on sediment transport, Technisk, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Fan, J., and Morris, G. (1992). “Reservoir sedimentation. I: Delta and density current deposits.” J. Hydraul. Eng., 118(3), 354–369.
Forel, F., (1885). “Les ravins sous lacustres de fleuves glaciares.” Compt. Rend., 101, 725–728.
Garcia, M. H. (1993). “Hydraulic jumps in sediment-driven bottom currents.” J. Hydraul. Eng., 119(10), 1094–1117.
Graf, W. H. (1971). Hydraulics of sediment transport, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Grover, N., and Howard, C. (1937). “The passage of turbid water through Lake Mead.” Trans. Am. Soc. Civ. Eng., 103, 720–790.
Kostic, S., and Parker, G. (2003a). “Progradational sand–mud deltas in lakes and reservoirs. Part I: Theory and numerical model.” J. Hydraul. Res., 41(2), 127–140.
Kostic, S., and Parker, G. (2003b). “Progradational sand–mud deltas in lakes and reservoirs. Part II. Experiment and numerical simulation.” J. Hydraul. Res., 41(2), 141–152.
Lambert, A. (1982). “Turbidity currents from the Rhine River on the bottom of Lake Constance.” Wasserwirtschaft, 72(4), 1–4 (in German).
Lane, E. (1954). “Some hydraulic engineering aspects of density currents.” Hydraulic Laboratory Rep. No. Hyd-373, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Denver.
MacCormack, R. (1969). “The effect of viscosity in hypervelocity impact cratering.” Paper 69-354, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Cincinnati.
Mahmood, K. (1987). “Reservoir sedimentation: Impact, extent, and mitigation.” Technical Paper No. 71, The World Bank, Washington, D.C.
Morris, G., and Fan, J. (1997). Reservoir sedimentation handbook, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Normark, W. R., and Dickson, F. H. (1976). “Man-made turbidity currents in Lake Superior.” Sedimentology, 23, 815–831.
Parker, G., Fukushima, Y., and Pantin, H. M. (1986). “Self-accelerating turbidity currents.” J. Fluid Mech., 171, 145–181.
Parker, G., and Toniolo, H. (2007). “A note on the analysis of plunging density flows.” J. Hydraul. Eng., in press.
Sloff, C. J. (1997). “Sedimentation in reservoirs.” Ph.D. thesis, Technical Univ. of Delft, Delft, The Netherlands.
Smith, W. O., Vetter, C. P., and Cummings, G. B. (1960). “Comprehensive survey of sedimentation in Lake Mead, 1948–1949.” Professional Paper 295, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Va.
Stefan, H., and Hayakawa, N. (1972). “Mixing induced by an internal hydraulic jump.” Water Resour. Bull., 8(3), 531–545.
Swenson, J. B., Voller, V. R., Paola, C., Parker, G., and Marr, J. (2000). “Fluvio-deltaic sedimentation: A generalized Stefan problem.” Eur. J. Appl. Math., 11, 433–452.
Tannehill, J., Anderson, D., and Pletcher, R. (1997). Computational fluid mechanics and heat transfer, 2nd Ed., Taylor and Francis.
Toniolo, H., Lamb, M., and Parker, G. (2006a). “Depositional turbidity currents in diapiric minibasins on the continental slope: Formulation and theory.” J. Sediment Res., 76, 783–797.
Toniolo, H., Parker, G., Voller, V., and Beaubouef, R. (2006b). “Depositional turbidity currents in diapiric minibasins on the continental slope: Experiments, numerical simulation, and upscaling.” J. Sediment Res., 76, 798–818.
Twichell, D. C., Cross, V. A., Hanson, A. D., Buck, B. J., Zybala, J. D., and Rudin, M. J. (2005). “Seismic architecture and lithofacies of turbidities in Lake Mead (Arizona and Nevada, U.S.A.): An analogue for topographically complex basins.” J. Sediment Res., 75, 134–148.
Wilkinson, D. L., and Wood, I. R. (1971). “A rapidly varied flow phenomenon in a two-layer flow.” J. Fluid Mech., 47(2), 241–256.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 133 • Issue 6 • June 2007
Pages: 579 - 595
Copyright
© 2007 ASCE.
History
Received: Dec 31, 2002
Accepted: Sep 18, 2006
Published online: Jun 1, 2007
Published in print: Jun 2007
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.