Transverse Mixing in an Unregulated Northern River
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 137, Issue 11
Abstract
Transverse mixing in an unregulated northern river in Canada was studied in different discharge conditions with and without ice cover. The distribution of cumulative discharge was constructed on the basis of river cross-sectional shapes, and a modified streamtube method was proposed to describe transverse mixing. The modified method only uses raw field data to calibrate the modeled concentration profiles and thus, can produce a reliable mixing coefficient even with relatively low-quality field data. The effects of river discharge and ice cover on the transverse mixing coefficient were examined in a fixed study reach. It was found that the transverse mixing coefficient increased approximately linearly with river discharge (from 84 to ). The dimensionless transverse mixing coefficient, scaled with river shear velocity and river depth, appeared unaffected (within 14%) by the river discharge in both open-water and ice-covered conditions, and its value was 21% smaller in the ice-covered condition than in the open-water condition.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank C. Krath, F. Bhuiyan, M. Spafford, Z. Pan, N. Hall, K. Sharma, J. Cai, and A. Camino for their help with the field work; P. Fedun for his support in the lab; and T. McKenna for providing the effluent and diffuser information. The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)NSERC and China National Program on Water Pollution Control and Management (UNSPECIFIED2011ZX07301-004).
References
Albers, C., and Steffler, P. (2007). “Estimating transverse mixing in open channels due to secondary current-induced shear dispersion.” J. Hydraul. Eng., 133(2), 186–196.
Ashton, G. D. (1986). River lake ice engineering, Water Resources Publications, Highlands Ranch, CO.
Baek, K. O., Seo, I. W., and Jeong, S. J. (2006). “Evaluation of dispersion coefficients in meandering channels from transient tracer tests.” J. Hydraul. Eng., 132(10), 1021–1032.
Beak Consultants. (1995). “Effluent plume delineation study for Alberta Pacific Forest Industries Inc.” Rep. No. 7.10610.1, Brampton, Ontario.
Beltaos, S. (1980). “Transverse mixing tests in natural streams.” J. Hydraul. Div., 106(10), 1607–1625.
Boxall, J. B., and Guymer, I. (2003). “Analysis and prediction of transverse mixing coefficients in natural channels.” J. Hydraul. Eng., 129(2), 129–139.
Chow, V. T. (1959). Open-channel hydraulics, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Demers, S., Buffin-Belanger, T., and Roy, A. G. (2010). “Helical cell motions in a small ice-covered meander river reach.” River Res. Appl., (Aug. 31, 2010).
Dow, K. E. (2009). “Experimental investigation of ice floe stability.” Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Univ. of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Dow, K. E., Steffler, P. M., and Zhu, D. Z. (2009). “Case study: Intermediate field mixing for a bank discharge in a natural river.” J. Hydraul. Eng., 135(1), 1–12.
Elhadi, N., Harrington, A., Hill, I., Lau, Y. L., and Krishnappan, B. G. (1984). “River mixing—A state-of-the-art report.” Can. J. Civ. Eng., 11(3), 585–609.
Engmann, J. E. O. (1974). “Transverse mixing characteristics of open and ice-covered channel flows.” Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Engmann, J. E. O., and Kellerhals, R. (1974). “Transverse mixing in an ice-covered river.” Water Resour. Res., 10(4), 775–784.
Fischer, H. B., List, E. J., Imberger, J., and Brooks, N. H. (1979). Mixing in inland and coastal waters, Harcourt Brace, San Diego.
Gowda, T. P. H. (1984). “Water quality prediction in mixing zones of rivers.” J. Environ. Eng., 110(4), 751–769.
Holley, E. R., Siemons, J., and Abraham, G. (1972). “Some aspects of analyzing transverse diffusion in rivers.” J. Hydraul. Res., 10(1), 27–57.
Jeon, T. M., Baek, K. O., and Seo, I. W. (2007). “Development of an empirical equation for the transverse dispersion coefficient in natural streams.” Environ. Fluid Mech., 7(4), 317–329.
Lau, Y. L. (1985). “Mixing coefficient for ice-covered and free-surface flows.” Can. J. Civ. Eng., 12(3), 521–526.
Lau, Y. L., and Krishnappan, B. G. (1981). “Modeling transverse mixing in natural streams.” J. Hydraul. Div., 107(2), 209–226.
Lima Neto, I. E., Zhu, D. Z., Rajaratnam, N., Yu, T., Spafford, M., and McEachern, P. (2007). “Dissolved oxygen downstream of an effluent outfall in an ice-cover river: Natural and artificial aeration.” J. Environ. Eng., 133(11), 1051–1060.
Neill, C. R., Yaremko, E. K., Van der Vinne, P. G., and Andres, D. D. (1995). “Under-ice hydraulics and mixing in regulated Peace River.” Proc., 8th Workshop on the Hydraulics of Ice Covered Rivers, D. D. Andres, ed., Committee on River Ice Processes and the Environment (CRIPE), Hydrology Section, Canadian Geophysical Union, 159–185.
Putz, G., Odigboh, I., and Smith, D. W. (2000). “Two-dimensional modeling of effluent mixing in the Athabasca River downstream of Alberta Pacific Forest Industries, Inc.” Sustainable forest management network, Proj. Rep. 2000-2, Univ. of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Putz, G., and Smith, D. W. (2001). “Field measurement and modeling of two-dimensional river mixing.” Water Sci. Technol.: Water Supply, 1(2), 57–65.
RiverSurveyor Version 4.30 [Computer software]. SonTek/YSI. San Diego.
Roberts, P. J. W., and Webster, D. R. (2002). “Turbulent diffusion.” Environmental fluid mechanics theories and application, Shen et al., eds., ASCE, Reston, VA, 7–45.
Rutherford, J. C. (1994). River mixing, Wiley, West Sussex, England.
Sayre, W. W. (1979). “Shore attached thermal plumes in rivers.” Environmental impact on rivers, H. W. Shen, ed., Wiley-Interscience, London, 15.1–15.44.
Seo, I. W., Baek, K. O., and Jeon, T. M. (2006). “Analysis of transverse mixing in natural streams under slug tests.” J. Hydraul. Res., 44(3), 350–362.
Smith, R. (1983). “Longitudinal dispersion coefficients for varying channels.” J. Fluid Mech., 130, 299–314.
Szupiany, R. N., Amsler, M. L., Best, J. L., and Parsons, D. R. (2007). “Comparison of fixed- and moving-vessel flow measurements with an ADP in a large river.” J. Hydraul. Eng., 133(12), 1299–1309.
Turner Designs. (2001). A practical guide to flow measurement, Sunnyvale, CA.
Van Der Vinne, D. (1993). “Winter low flow tracer dye studies, Athabasca River, Athabasca to Bitumount, Feburary and March, 1992, Part II: Mixing characteristics.” Northern river basin study, Governments of Canada, Alberta, and Northwest Territories, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Yotsukura, N., and Sayre, W. W. (1976). “Transverse mixing in natural channels.” Water Resour. Res., 12(4), 695–704.
Zhang, W., and Zhu, D. Z. (2011). “Near-field mixing downstream of a multiport diffuser in a shallow river.” J. Environ. Eng., 137(4), 230–240.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 137 • Issue 11 • November 2011
Pages: 1426 - 1440
Copyright
© 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 20, 2010
Accepted: May 10, 2011
Published online: May 12, 2011
Published in print: Nov 1, 2011
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.