Ice Jams in Straight and Sinuous Channels: Insights from Small Flumes
Publication: Journal of Cold Regions Engineering
Volume 31, Issue 3
Abstract
This paper presents insights from two small flumes used to compare ice conveyance and jam initiation between straight and sinuous channels of rectangular cross section, and to investigate ice accumulation and jam morphology in sinuous channels. The findings indicate conditions, expressed in terms of Froude number and ice-piece size relative to channel width, limiting ice conveyance and leading to jam initiation in sinuous and straight channels. The sinuous channel is found to have a larger capacity to convey ice floes than the straight channel of the same flow cross section. Velocity nonuniformity, including higher velocities near the outer bank of bends, contributes to this insight. Jams formed by relatively small floes have a nonuniform thickness through the sinuous channel and are thickest along the inner banks. The thickness variation reduces as floe size increases. Accumulation and jam morphology are analogous to alluvial sediment morphology in sinuous channels. The paper also presents suggestions for aspects in need of further laboratory and numerical investigation and further field observations.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The writers thank the reviewers of this paper. Their review suggestions improved it.
References
Ackerman, N. C., and Shen, H. T. (1983). “Mechanics of ice jam formation in rivers.”, Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Roxbury, NH.
Ackerman, N. C., Shen, H. T., and Ruggles, R. W. (1981). “Transportation of ice in rivers.” Proc., IAHR Int. Symp. on Ice, Laval Univ., Quebec City, 333–346.
Ashton, G. D. (1986). River and lake ice engineering, Water Resources Publications, Littleton, CO.
Beltaos, S. (1995). River ice breakup, Water Resource Publications, Littleton, CO.
Beltaos, S. (2008). “Progress in the study and management of river ice jams.” Cold Reg. Sci. Technol., 51(1), 2–19.
Beltaos, S. (2013). River ice formation, Canadian Geophysical Union, Ottawa.
Burgi, P. (1971). Ice control structure on the North Platte River: A hydraulic model study, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Publication, Denver.
Burgi, P. H., and Krogstad, D. E. (1986). “Ice management at Dickinson dam spillway crest gate.” AHR Symp. on Ice, Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research, Iowa City, IA, 235–247.
Calkins, D. J., and Ashton, G. D. (1975). “Arching of fragmented ice covers: Effect of mixture variation of two block sizes.”, Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Roxbury, NH.
Garbrecht, G., and Mertens, W. (1984). “Simulation of the formation of ice jams in alluvial rivers.” IAHR Symp. on Effects in Modelling Hydraulic Structures, Technische Akademie Esslingen, Esslingen am Neckar, Germany.
Healy, D., and Hicks, F. E. (2006). “Experimental study of ice jam formation dynamics.” J. Cold Reg. Eng., 117–139.
Hicks, F. E. (2016). River ice engineering for engineers and geoscientists, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, Colorado Springs, CO.
Huang, F., Shen, H. T., and Li, C. (2016). “Ice transport and jamming in channel bends.” Proc., IAHR, 23rd Ice Symp. on Ice, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, Ann Arbor, MI.
Johnson, R. P., and Kotras, T. V. (1980). “Physical hydraulic model study of an ice-covered river.” Proc., ASCE Hydraulics Division Conf., ASCE, New York.
Keenhan, T., Panu, U. S., and Kartha, V. C. (1982). “Analysis of freeze-up ice jams on the Peace River near Taylor, British Columbia.” Can. J. Civ. Eng., 9(2), 176–188.
Kivisild, H. R. (1959). “Hanging ice dams.” 8th Congress of the IAHR, IAHR, Delft, Netherlands.
Korzhavin, K. N. (1974). “Conditions of ice passage through bridge openings free of jams on Siberian rivers.” IAHR Symp. on Rivers and Ice, Permanent Association of Navigation Congresses, Brussels, Belgium, 57–65.
Lucie, C. (1989). “Laboratory experiments on ice jams in river bends.” M.S. thesis, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City, IA.
Odgaard, A. J., and Abad, J. D. (2007). “River meandering and channel stability.” Sedimentation engineering, M. Garcia, ed., ASCE, Reston, VA, 439–454.
Richards, K. (1982). Rivers: Form and process in alluvial channels, Methuen & Co., London.
Shen, H. T., and Ho, C. F. (1986). “Two-dimensional simulation of ice cover formation in a large river.” Proc. IAHR Ice Symp., Vol. 1, Iowa City, IA, 547–558.
Tatinclaux, J., and Lee, C. (1978). “Initiation of ice jams—A laboratory study.” Can. J. Civ. Eng., 5(2), 202–212.
Urroz, E., and Ettema, R. (1992). “Bend ice jams: Laboratory observations.” Can. J. Civ. Eng., 19(5), 855–864.
Urroz, E., and Ettema, R. (1994). “Small-scale experiments on ice-jam initiation in a curved channel.” Can. J. Civ. Eng., 21(5), 719–727.
Wang, J., Gao, Y., Yin, Y., Gao, L., and Zhao, H. (2007). “An experimental study of ice jam formation and its thickness distribution in a curved channel.” J. Glaciol. Geocryol., 29, 764–769 (in Chinese).
Yoshikawa, Y., Kuroda, Y., Abe, T., Toyabe, T., Park, H., and Oshima, K. (2016). “Study on the ice-jam occurrence based on hydraulic experimentation.” Proc., IAHR, 23rd Ice Symp. on Ice, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, Ann Arbor, MI.
Zufelt, J., and Calkins, D. (1985). “Survey of ice problem areas in navigable waterways.”, Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Roxbury, NH.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Cold Regions Engineering
Volume 31 • Issue 3 • September 2017
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 20, 2016
Accepted: Nov 2, 2016
Published ahead of print: Feb 27, 2017
Published online: Feb 28, 2017
Discussion open until: Jul 28, 2017
Published in print: Sep 1, 2017
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.