Impacts of Muddy Bed Aggregates on Sediment Transport and Management in the Tidal James River, VA
Publication: Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering
Volume 146, Issue 5
Abstract
Aggregation state significantly influences the size, density, and transport characteristics of fine sediment. Understanding sediment transport and deposition processes in the nation's navigable waterways is a primary mission for the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), particularly when it comes to infilling of navigation channels. In this study, a newly developed camera system was used to evaluate the aggregation state of eroded sediment from cores collected in the tidal James River, VA. Results showed that bed sediments were composed mostly of mud, but that erosion predominately occurred in the form of aggregates with median sizes 50–270 times larger than the disaggregated sediment. Aggregate size weakly correlated to shear stress at levels <2 Pa, as well as sand content and bed density. A numerical simulation demonstrated that mud aggregates were predicted to transport in incipient suspension or bedload, while disaggregated fines were predominately maintained in full suspension. This difference in transport mode has significant implication for channel infilling and sediment transport within the system.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request. These data include .mat and .xlsx files containing grain-size distributions from both processed videos and physical samples, as well as bulk density and water content values obtained from sediment samples.
Acknowledgments
This work was jointly funded and supported by the Dredging Operations Environmental Research (DOER) Program, the Regional Sediment Management (RSM) Program, and the USACE Norfolk District Office (NAO). The authors would like to acknowledge assistance and support provided with both field logistics and laboratory analysis from T. W. Kirklin, J. M. Kirklin, R. S. Pruhs, the VIMS-CHSD Laboratory, and the US Army Fort Eustis Harbor. The involvement of C. T. Friedrichs was supported by NSF Grant OCE-1459708. This is Contribution No. 3884 of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, William & Mary.
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Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering
Volume 146 • Issue 5 • September 2020
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Received: Sep 17, 2019
Accepted: Jan 6, 2020
Published online: Jun 5, 2020
Published in print: Sep 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Nov 5, 2020
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