Determining Erodibility, Critical Shear Stress, and Allowable Discharge Estimates for Cohesive Channels: Case Study in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 134, Issue 12
Abstract
The continuous discharge of coalbed natural gas-produced (CBNG-produced) water within ephemeral, cohesive channels in the Powder River Basin (PRB) of Wyoming can result in significant erosion. A study was completed to investigate channel stability in an attempt to correlate cohesive soil properties to critical shear stress. An in situ jet device was used to determine critical shear stress and erodibility ; cohesive soil properties were determined following ASTM procedures for 25 reaches. The study sites were comprised of erodible to moderately resistant clays with ranging from and ranging from . A relationship between five cohesive soil characteristics and was developed and presented for use in deriving for similar sites. Allowable discharges for CBNG-produced water were also derived using and the tractive force method. An increase in the allowable discharge was found for channels in which vegetation was maintained. The information from this case study is critical to the development of a conservative methodology to establish allowable discharges while minimizing flow-induced instability.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The writers gratefully acknowledge the financial and technical support received from the WYDEQ-Water Quality Division, Lowham Engineering LLC, and the College of Engineering at the University of Wyoming. They further extend their gratitude to Dr. Gregory Hanson for his invaluable support, guidance, and technical assistance with the submerged jet device and application. They would also like to recognize Dr. Quentin Skinner in the Department of Renewable Resources at The University of Wyoming for his invaluable assistance with the vegetative analyses component of this investigation. Finally, The writers would like to thank the editor and the anonymous reviewers for providing thorough and insightful comments that led to significant improvement of this paper.
References
Allen, P. M., Arnold, J., and Jakubowski, E. (1999). “Prediction of stream channel erosion potential.” Environ. Eng. Geosci., 5(3), 339–351.
Ariathurai, R., and Arulanandan, K. (1978). “Erosion rates of cohesive soils.” J. Hydr. Div., 104(HY2), 279–283.
Arulanandan, K., Gillogley, E., and Trully, R. (1980). “Development of a quantitative method to predict critical shear stress and rate of erosion of natural undisturbed cohesive soils.” Rep. No GL-80-5, U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station, Vicksburg, Miss.
ASCE. (1968). “Task committee on erosion of cohesive materials—Erosion of cohesive sediments.” J. Hydr. Div., 94(HY4), 1017–1049.
Belsley, D. A., Kuh, E., and Welsch, R. E. (1980). Regression diagnostics: Identifying influential data sources and sources of collinearity, Wiley, New York.
Blaisdell, F. W., Clayton, L. A., and Hebaus, G. G. (1981). “Ultimate dimensions of local scour.” J. Hydr. Div., 107(HY3), 327–337.
Briaud, J. L., Ting, F. C. K., Chen, H. C., Cao, Y., Han, S. W., and Kwak, K. W. (2001). “Erosion function apparatus for scour rate prediction.” Geochem. J., 127(2), 105–113.
Couper, P., and Maddock, I. P. (2001). “Subaerial river bank erosion processes and their interaction with other bank erosion mechanisms on the River Arrow, Warwickshire, UK.” Earth Surf. Processes Landforms, 26(1), 631–646.
Einstein, H. A. (1950). “The bedload function for sediment transport in open channels.” Technical Bulletin No. 1026, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.
Elliot, W. J., Olivieri, L. J., Laflen, J. M., and Kohl, K. D. (1990). “Predicting soil erodibility from soil properties including classification, mineralogy, climate, and topography.” Paper No. 902557, American Society of Agricultural Engineers, St. Joseph, Mich.
Fortier, S., and Scobey, F. C. (1926). “Permissible canal velocities.” Trans. Am. Soc. Civ. Eng., 89(1), 940–984.
Ganjegunte, G. K., Vance, G. F., and King, L. A. (2005). “Soil chemical changes from irrigation with water co-produced with coalbed natural gas.” J. Environ. Qual., 34(1), 2217–2227.
Graf, W. H. (1984). Hydraulics of sediment transport, Water Resources Publications, LLC, Highlands Ranch, Colo.
Grissinger, E. H., Asmussen, L. E., and Espey, W. H. (1963). “Channel stability in undisturbed cohesive soils.” J. Hydr. Div., 89(HY6), 259–264.
Hanson, G. J. (1989). “Channel erosion of two compacted soils.” Trans. ASAE, 32(2), 485–490.
Hanson, G. J. (1990). “Surface erodibility of earthen channels at high stresses. Part I—Open channel testing.” Trans. ASAE, 33(1), 127–131.
Hanson, G. J. (1991). “Development of a jet index to characterize erosion resistance of soils in earthen spillways.” Trans. ASAE, 34(1), 132–137.
Hanson, G. J., and Cook, K. R. (1997). “Development of excess shear stress parameters for circular jet testing.” Paper No. 972227, American Society of Agricultural Engineers, St. Joseph, Mich.
Hanson, G. J., and Cook, K. R. (1999). “Procedures to estimate soil erodibility for water management purposes.” Paper No. 992133, American Society of Agricultural Engineers, St. Joseph, Mich.
Hanson, G. J., and Cook, K. R. (2004). “Apparatus, test procedures, and analytical methods to measure soil erodibility in-situ.” Trans. ASAE, 20(4), 455–462.
Hanson, G. J., and Robinson, K. M. (1993). “The influence of soil moisture and compaction on spillway erosion.” Trans. ASAE, 36(5), 1349–1352.
Hanson, G. J., Robinson, K. M., and Cook, K. R. (2002). “Scour below an overfall. Part II: Prediction.” Trans. ASAE, 45(4), 957–964.
Hanson, G. J., and Simon, A. (2001). “Erodibility of cohesive streambeds in the loess area of the midwestern USA.” Hydrolog. Process., 15(1), 23–38.
Hanson, G. J., and Simon, A. (2002). “Discussion of ‘Erosion function apparatus for scour rate predictions’ by J. L. Briaud, F. C. K. Ting, H. C. Chen, Y. Cao, S. W. Han, and K. W. Kwak.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 128(7), 627–628.
Hollick, M. (1976). “Towards a routine test for the assessment of critical tractive forces of cohesive soils.” Trans. ASAE, 19(6), 1076–1081.
Kirkpatrick, A., Sessoms, H., and Skinner, Q. D. (2006). “A guide to changing plant communities, with emphasis on salinizing sites in the arid and semi-arid northern plains and mountains region.” Montana State Univ. Cooperative Extension Service and Northern Plains and Mountains Regional Water Quality Program, Bozeman, Mont.
Lim, S. S. (2006). “Experimental investigation of erosion in variable saturated clay soils.” Ph.D. dissertation, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Univ. of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
Lowry, M. E., et al. (1986). “Hydrology of area, 50, northern great plains and rocky mountain coal provinces, Wyoming and Montana.” Rep. No. 83–545, U.S. Geological Survey, Cheyenne, Wyo.
Lyle, W. M., and Smerdon, E. T. (1965). “Relation of compaction and other soil properties to the erosion resistance of soils.” Trans. ASAE, 8(3), 419–422.
Mehta, A. J. (1991). “Review notes on cohesive sediment erosion.” Coastal Sediments ’91: Proc., ASCE Seattle, Washington, 1(1), 40–53.
Moore, W. L., and Masch, F. D. (1962). “Experiments on scour resistance of cohesive sediments.” J. Geophys. Res., 67(4), 1437–1446.
Paaswell, R. E. (1973). “Causes and mechanisms of cohesive soil erosion: The state of the art.” Highway Research Board Special Rep. No., 135, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 52–74.
Parthenaides, E., and Paaswell, R. E. (1970). “Erodibility of channels with cohesive boundary.” J. Hydr. Div., 96(HY3), 755–771.
Patz, M. J., Reddy, K. J., and Skinner, Q. D. (2004). “Chemistry of coalbed methane discharge water interacting with semi-arid ephemeral channels.” J. Am. Water Resour. Assoc., 40(5), 1247–1255.
Payne, A. A. (2004). “Surface water hydrology and shallow groundwater effects of coalbed methane development, upper Beaver Creek, Powder River Basin, Wyoming.” MS thesis, Dept. of Geology, Univ. of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyo.
Raudkivi, A. J., and Tan, S. K. (1984). “Erosion of cohesive soils.” J. Hydraul. Res., 22(4), 217–233.
Robinson, K. M., Bennett, S. J., Hanson, G. J., and Kadavy, K. C. (2000). “The influence of weathering on headcut erosion.” Paper No. 002066, American Society of Agricultural Engineers, St. Joseph, Mich.
Shaikh, A., Ruff, J. F., and Abt, S. A. (1988a). “Erosion rate of compacted NA-Montmorillonite soils.” J. Geotech. Engrg., 114(3), 297–305.
Shaikh, A., Ruff, J. F., Wayne, C. A., and Abt, S. A. (1988b). “Erosion rate of dispersive and nondispersive clays.” J. Geotech. Engrg., 114(5), 589–600.
Simon, A., and Collinson, A. J. C. (2001). “Pore-water pressure effects on the detachment of cohesive streambeds: Seepage forces and matric suction.” Earth Surf. Processes Landforms, 26(1), 1421–1442.
Simon, A., and Thomas, R. E. (2002). “Processes and forms of an unstable system with resistant, cohesive streambeds.” Earth Surf. Processes Landforms, 27(7), 699–718.
Skempton, A. W. (1953). “The colloidal activity of clays.” Proc., 3rd Int. Conf. of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Vol. 1(1), 57.
Skinner, Q. D. (2003). “Rangeland monitoring: Water quality and riparian systems.” Arid Land Research and Management, 17(4), 407–728.
SPSS Inc. (2005). SPSS for windows, release 14.0.1, Chicago.
Stein, O. R., Julien, P. Y., and Alonso, C. V. (1993). “Mechanics of jet scour downstream of a headcut.” J. Hydraul. Res., 31(6), 732–738.
Stein, O. R., and Nett, D. D. (1997). “Impinging jet calibration of excess shear sediment detachment parameters.” Trans. ASAE, 40(6), 1573–1580.
Temple, D. M. (1980). “Tractive force design of vegetated channels.” Trans. ASAE, 23(4), 884–890.
Temple, D. M. (1982). “Flow retardance of submerged grass channel linings.” Trans. ASAE, 25(5), 1300–1303.
Temple, D. M., Robinson, K. M., Ahring, R. M., and Davis, A. G. (1987). “Stability design of grass-lined open channels.” Agriculture handbook 667, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Stillwater, Okla.
Thoman, R. W. (2007) “Determining the erodibility of ephemeral, cohesive channels in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming.” MS thesis, Univ. of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyo.
USACE. (1970). “Laboratory soils testing.” Engineer manual, EM1110-2-1906, Washington, D.C.
Wischmeier, W. H., and Mannering, J. V. (1969). “Relation of soil properties to its erodibility.” Soil Sci. Soc. Am. Proc., 33(1), 131–137.
Wynn, T. M. (2004). “The effects of vegetation on stream bank erosion.” Ph.D. dissertation, Biological Systems Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va.
Wynn, T. M., Henderson, M. B., and Vaughan, D. H. (2008). “Changes in streambank erodibility and critical shear stress due to subaerial processes along a headwater stream, southwestern Virginia, USA.” Geomorphology, 97(1), 260–273.
Wynn, T. M., and Mostaghimi, S. (2006). “The effects of vegetation and soil type on streambank erosion, southwest Virginia, USA.” J. Am. Water Resour. Assoc., 42(1), 69–82.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 134 • Issue 12 • December 2008
Pages: 1677 - 1687
Copyright
© 2008 ASCE.
History
Received: Aug 14, 2007
Accepted: Apr 22, 2008
Published online: Dec 1, 2008
Published in print: Dec 2008
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.