Sediment Entrainment and Suspension in Complex Flows

University Of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara CA

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract CTS-0120135 S. McLean, University of California Santa Barbara This is a renewal proposal of the Grant CTS-9634261 "Mechanism of sediment transport in complex flows" which ended in August 2001. In this Grant, the research is focused on the interaction mechanisms between the bed forms and the flow, and the processes by which the flow field moves the sediment grains as bedload or suspended load. The investigations were carried out by experiments in a flume and simple method of predicting sediment flux over a two-dimensional dune was developed. In the present proposal, the PI plans to investigate the processes governing how gradients in sediment flux give rise to changes in bed topography. More specifically, it is proposed to investigate five different types of flow with increasing complexity.