Numerical Model for Sediment Transport and Bed Degradation in the Yangtze River Channel Downstream of Three Gorges Reservoir
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 135, Issue 9
Abstract
This paper presents a two-dimensional morphological model for unsteady flow and both suspended-load and bed-load transport of multiple grain size to simulate transport of graded sediments downstream from the Three Gorges Reservoir. The model system includes a hydrodynamic module and a sediment module. The hydrodynamic module is based on the depth-averaged shallow water equations in orthogonal curvilinear coordinates. The sediment module describing nonuniform sediment transport is developed to include nonequilibrium transport processes, bed deformation, and bed material sorting. The model was calibrated using field observations through application to a 63-km-long alluvial river channel on the middle Yangtze River in China. A total of 16 size groups and a loose layer method of three sublayers were considered for the transport of the nonuniform bed materials in a long-term simulation. Predictions are compared with preliminary results of field observations and factors affecting the reliability of the simulated results are discussed. The results may be helpful to the development of more accurate simulation models in the future.
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Acknowledgments
Partial financial support from China’s National Key Basic Research and Development Program (Grant No. UNSPECIFIED2003CB415206) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project Nos. NNSFC50479004 and NNSFC50221903) is gratefully acknowledged.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 135 • Issue 9 • September 2009
Pages: 729 - 740
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Jul 7, 2006
Accepted: Apr 24, 2009
Published online: Aug 14, 2009
Published in print: Sep 2009
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