Influence of River Sinuosity on the Distribution of Conservative Pollutants
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 17, Issue 12
Abstract
The influence of river sinuosity on the distribution characteristics of pollutants in a wide river is investigated three-dimensionally with a numerical model. It is found that, for a meandering river, the hydrodynamic force strongly controls the distribution of a conservative pollutant in the river. Because of secondary flow at the channel bend, high sinuosity leads to a lighter-than-water pollutant concentrating more on the inner bend apex region at the surface, whereas at the deep near-bed region, it concentrates more on the outer bend apex. For a heavier-than-water pollutant gravity flows in sinuous channels, there are two unique features resulting from the super-elevation and multicell cross-sectional secondary flows with alternate circulation directions: (1) the pollutant is distributed at the bottom more on the inner bend apex region; and (2) more on the outer bend apex region at a depth corresponding to the mixing region of the bottom two secondary flow cells of opposite circulation direction. These findings may assist field investigations in locating the best sampling points and in determining cost-effective measures for accidental or planned river pollution events.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant numbers: 40972086, 41172103). In addition, the third author wishes to acknowledge the support of the National Basic Research Program of China (863 Program, Grant No. 2009AA03Z529) and the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University of China (Grant No. NCET-08-0618).
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Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 17 • Issue 12 • December 2012
Pages: 1296 - 1301
Copyright
© 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 14, 2010
Accepted: Jan 9, 2012
Published online: Jan 11, 2012
Published in print: Dec 1, 2012
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