Theory and Implementation in WASP8

Sediment Transport Processes

Biotic production Cohesive Noncohesive
Dissolution
Aggregation

C U
Settling Settling

Erosion Entrainment
b , u *
Deposition Deposition Bed Load

Consolidation Armoring Erosion

d Burial
Sediment Bed
 Flow, Velocity, and Shear Stress
Solids transport is strongly influenced by the water flow,
with its velocity, depth, and resulting shear stress:

H
u
z
c 

x b u*

H = water depth [m] τ = shear stress [N/m2]

u = water velocity [m/sec] τb = bottom shear stress [N/m2]
c = volumetric solids concentration [m3/m3]
S = solids concentration [kg/m3] u* = shear velocity [m/sec]
 Bottom Shear Stress
Solids deposition and resuspension are controlled by
bottom shear stress. This is the expression for the
grain-related bottom shear stress (skin friction):

 f u 2

0.24
b  f
log 2 12 H k s 
8

ρ = water density [kg/m3], u = water velocity [m/sec],

ks = equivalent roughness height [m], H = water depth [m]

(larger of 3 × D50, or 0.01H) u* =

 Noncohesive Settling
Settling velocities, Ws, of individual noncohesive
sediment particles are functions of:

• D = particle diameter [m]

• ρs = sediment particle density [kg/m3]
• ρ = water density [kg/m3]
• m = absolute viscosity of water
= 0.001 poise [kg/m-sec] at 20oC
• ν = dynamic viscosity of water [m2/sec]
= μ/ρ
• g = acceleration of gravity, 9.808 [m/sec2]
•R =

• d* = dimensionless diameter =
 Settling Velocities, Ws
from van Rijn (1984)
Rd (i.e., Stokes equation,
18 D  100 mm applied for very fine sand
and smaller)

Ws 10
 
gD R
d
 1  0.01Rd2  1  100 mm  D  1000 mm


1.1 D  1000 mm (i.e., applied for very coarse
sand and larger)

Where Ws in m/sec, and Rd = sediment particle densimetric Reynolds number:

D gD  s 
Rd  g  g   1
   
 Noncohesive Deposition
Noncohesive deposition is
settling attenuated by the shear Stream sedimentation regimes
stress from water flow:

WD  WS   D

αD = probability of deposition upon

contact with bed; varies roughly linearly
from 1 to 0 (Krone, 1963):
αD = 1,  b ≤  c1 ≈ 0
αD = 0,  b ≥  c 2 ≈ 0.01 - 0.2 N/m2

Or, αD = 1 (Novotny and others)

 Noncohesive Sediment Transport
Resuspension involves erosion from the surficial sediment
layer, and entrainment from the bed load boundary layer.
Erosion and entrainment velocities of individual noncohesive
sediment particles are functions of:

• particle diameter and density

• bottom shear stress
• critical shear stress
Commonly used expressions for E in the following slides are
partly taken from:
 Definition Sketch: Noncohesive Sediment
erosion, entrainment, resuspension, and bedload
Components of noncohesive sediment transport:
• Erosion from surface sediment: ES, WE
• Deposition from the boundary layer: DS, WS
• Entrainment from the boundary layer, Wz
• Net resuspension from sediment to water, WRS
• Bed load through boundary layer: gbl

Surface Water Column CW

Wz WRS

Water-Bedload W S DS gbl
hbl Cbl
Boundary Layer

Surface Sediment Layer CB WE ES

 Initiation of Erosion
Erosion begins when shear stress b exceeds cE
 
where cE is a user-specified constant (default = 1), and cE is the critical
Shields number for erosion:
.


cE

Rd
 Noncohesive Erosion
Assuming the boundary layer is in equilibrium with the
surface sediment layer, deposition flux = erosion flux:

where DS is volumeric deposition flux [m3-solid/m2-sec], ES is volumetric erosion flux

[m3-solid/m2-sec], Cbl is volumetric solids concentration at the top of the boundary
layer [m3-solid/m3].

Nondimensional E is equal to the volumetric solids

concentration at the top of the bed layer:
 Noncohesive Erosion
Erosion flux and velocity can be calculated from E:

ρs ρs

ρs / )

where FS is erosion flux [kg-solid/m2-sec], SB is sediment layer concentration [kg-

solid/m3], and WE is erosion velocity [m/sec]. The term in parentheses can be
expressed as a function of sediment layer porosity, n [m3-water/m3]:

ρs / 1 / (1– n)

/ (1– n)
 Determining Nondimensional E
Nondimensional erosion E determined by van Rijn (1984) :




where E is a user-specified multiplier (default = 1), Ds is the median

particle size [m], ks is the roughness height [m], Rd is the sediment
particle densimetric Reynolds number,  is a user-specified exponent
(default = 1.5), and  is the non-dimensional shear stress:
 Initiation of Resuspension
Eroded particles move in the boundary layer as bed load
below the critical shear stress for resuspension, [N/m2]

where WS is particle settling velocity [m/sec], d* is nondimensional particle diameter,

and ρ is water density [kg/m3]

Define critical shear velocity for resuspension u*cRS [m/sec]:

 Resuspension from Surface Layer
The fraction noncohesive erosion from the surface sediment
layer that is entrained to suspension is given by:

=0
=
=1
where u* is shear velocity [m/sec], u*cRS is critical shear velocity for resuspension
[m/sec], and WS is particle settling velocity [m/sec]

Resuspension velocity [m/sec]:

Resuspension flux [g/m2-sec]:

 Bed Load Transport Equation
The van Rijn 2007 bedload transport [kg/m-sec] equation:

Where gbl is the mass bedload transport rate per unit width [kg/m-sec], u is
the average water velocity [m/sec], ucr is the water velocity corresponding
to cr, and is the exponent for excess velocity dependence, set to 1.5.
 Bed Load Transport
The mass bed load rate leaving a segment is:

Where Xbl is the mass bedload transport rate [g/sec], B is the width [m],
Qbl is the volumetric bedload flow rate [m3/sec], and Sb is the sediment
solids concentration [g/m3].

Finally, the component of erosion velocity supporting

bedload transport is:
 Cohesive Sediment Resuspension
A commonly-used expression is the following excess shear
stress power law formulation (Lick et al., 1994):

=0
Ecoh  fcoh M  n
* =

M = shear stress multiplier, 0.1 to 100 [g/m2-sec]

n = shear stress exponent, where 1.6 to 2 < n < 3 to 4
fcoh = fraction of cohesive sediment in the surficial bed layer
 cE = critical shear stress for erosion, 0.5 – 8 [N/m2]
These are site specific parameters.
 Sediment Burial
Burial velocities from any specified layer k are given
by mass balance over solids types i.
Surficial sediment layer, k=1, bottom water = 0:

WB,1  ST,1  WD,i,0  Si,0  WR,i,1  WBL,i,1  ki,1  d1 Si,1

i i

Subsurface sediment layers:

W B,k  ST ,k  W B,k1  ST ,k1  dk   k i,k  Si,k 
i

Where WD is deposition velocity, WR is resuspension velocity, WBL is

bed load velocity, k is solids degradation rate constant, and d is layer
depth.
 Sediment Transport Processes
not covered due to complexity
 Stream bank erosion
 Watershed erosion and delivery by particle size
 Explicit flocculation of fine-grain sediment
 Silt, clay, and OM
 Flocculation effects covered implicitly
 Armoring and its effect on bedload and suspended
load transport
 Requires multiple noncohesive solids classes
 Implemented in SEDZLJ
 Fine scale heterogeneity and temporal dynamics