Rheological Properties of Bed Sediments Subjected to Shear and Vibration Loads
Publication: Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering
Volume 140, Issue 1
Abstract
The rheological properties of river and seabed sediments are important to describing the interactions of the currents and waves with the bed. This paper presents the findings from a study of the rheological properties of both sandy and cohesive (kaolin and mud) bed sediments under shear and mechanical vibration loads. It was found that the rheological properties of the sediments depended not only on the magnitude of the shear load but also on its duration. The sandy and cohesive sediments exhibited shear thinning and thixotropy for shear speeds greater than 1 revolution per minute, whereas the cohesive kaolin and mud exhibited antithixotropy for shear speeds lower than 1 revolution per minute. High-frequency vibration loads also significantly reduced the viscosity of the sediments, with the magnitude of the reduction increasing with the frequency of the vibration. The kaolin and mud were also fluidized by the vibration, and their recovery required a longer time compared with the sandy sediment. Some potential applications of these observations are highlighted in this paper.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This study was partially funded by Contract No. 2007AA09Z312 (Scouring Mechanism of Marine Pipeline and New Protection Techniques) and Contract No. 51179101(National Natural Science Foundation) awarded by the Chinese Government. The laboratory work was partially supported by the Maritime Research Centre, Nanyang Technology University, Singapore.
References
Bai, Y. C., Ng, C.-O., Shen, H. T., and Wang, S. Y. (2002). “Rheological properties and incipient motion of cohesive sediment in the Haihe Estuary of China.” China Ocean Engineering, 16(4), 483–498.
Barnes, H. A. (1997). “Thixotropy—A review.” J. Non-Newt. Fluid Mech., 70(1–2), 1–33.
Berlamont, J., Ockenden, M., Toorman, E., and Winterwerp, J. (1993). “The characterisation of cohesive sediment properties.” Coast. Eng., 21(1–3), 105–128.
Bingham E. C. (1916). “An investigation of the laws of plastic flow.” Bull. US Bur. Stand., 13(2), 309–353.
Chou, H. T., Foda, M. A., and Hunt, J. R. (1993). “Rheological response of cohesive sediments to oscillatory forcing.” Chapter 8, Nearshore and estuarine cohesive sediment transport, Coastal and estuarine studies, Vol. 42, American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC, 126–147.
Cui, H., and Bai, Y. C. (2011). “Rheological properties of cohesive sediment in estuary.” 5th Int. Conf. on Bioinformatics and Biomedical Engineering, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), New York.
Fass, R. W., and Wartel, S. I. (2006). “Rheological properties of sediment suspensions from Eckernforde and Kieler Forde Bays, Western Baltic Sea.” Int. J. Sediment Res., 21(1), 24–41.
Huang, Z. H., and Huhe, A. (2009). “A laboratory study of rheological properties of mudflows in Hangzhou Bay, China.” Int. J. Sediment Res., 24(4), 410–424.
Li, L., Usui, H., and Suzuki, H. (2002). “Study of pipeline transportation of dense fly ash-water slurry.” Coal Prep., 22(2), 65–80.
Mehta, A. J. (1986). “Characterization of cohesive sediment properties and transport processes in estuaries.” Estuarine cohesive sediment dynamics: Lecture notes on coastal and estuarine studies, Vol. 14, Springer, Berlin, 290–325.
Nguyen, Q. D., and Boger, D. V. (1983). “Yield stress measurement in concentrated suspensions.” J. Rheol., 27(4), 321–349.
Nguyen, Q. D., and Boger, D. V. (1984). “Exploiting the rheology of highly concentrated suspensions.” Advances in rheology, Vol. 1, Univ. Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City, 153–171.
RHEOCALC DV2T [Computer software]. Middleborough, MA, Brookfield Engineering Laboratories.
Ross, M. A., and Mehta, A. J. (1989). “On the mechanics of lutoclines and fluid mud.” J. Coastal Res., 5(3), 51–62.
Van Kessel, T., and Blom, C. (1998). “Rheology of cohesive sediments: Comparison between a natural and an artificial mud.” J. Hydraul. Res., 36(4), 591–612.
Zhao, J. M., Chen, Z. Y., Chen, N., Liu, Q. W., Liu, X. S., and Wang, H. (2010). “Study on the technology of lifting silt plugged sluice gate by vibroflotation liquefaction method.” World Earthquake Eng., 20(S1), 258–262.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering
Volume 140 • Issue 1 • January 2014
Pages: 109 - 113
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 5, 2013
Accepted: May 2, 2013
Published online: May 4, 2013
Published in print: Jan 1, 2014
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.