TurBipity CURREN? WITH EROSION AND DEPOSITION By J. Akiyama! and H. Stefant Assrcr: The equations which govern the movement of two-dimensional ‘dually vaned trblditv currents in reservoirs and over beaches are derived Fra solved numeneally. Turoicny currents are secmert-laden gravity carrents int onchange sediment withthe bed By erosion or deposison 4s the fw ta¥~ Ghover he downslope. Turbisty curonts derive ths deving fore for the “Scuiment in suspension. They experience aresistang shea force onthe bed and {train water fom above. Tocdy coments can be eroding ox depose © Ecleranng or decelerating, dependent onthe combination of initial conditions, ‘Sed ope. and see of sediment particles. They can be controlled from upstream SSupertical or downstream (cubental). Gravity coments wath and without (Sobton and deposition ae examined in order fo understand the effects of sed {Sent exchange on tne flow. InerrooueTIon Turbidity currents are gravity currents consisting of a sediment-water mixture flowing over a sloping bottom (Fig. 1). Similar gravity currents an be produced by salinity or temperature differences and have then been referred to as inclined plumes or underflows (8,17.18,19,26). In tur- bidity currents, suspended sediment makes the densit: of the mixture aier than the density of the ambient water and provides the driving force; the sediment laden flow must generate enough turbulence to hold the sediment in suspension. Uniform or gradually varied turbidity cur- rents with very fine sediment and therefore without erosion or depo- sition of sediment have been studied by Ashide and Egashira (3), Bon- refille and Goddet (5), and Stefan (25) among others. “Turbidity currents have been observed where inflows carrying a rel- atively high concentration of suspended material enter lakes (20), res- frvois (Ii), or the ocean (16), Two types of turbidity currents can be distinguished: (1) Low velocity, low density (5); and (2) high velocity, high density (16). High velocity, high density turbidity currents often cany suspended materials introduced near the shore to the deep sea, ind even have enough erosive power to produce submarine canyons (13) Turbidity currents can be originated by various processes. Discharges of large amounts of sediments, e.g., mine tailings Gilver Bay in Lake Superior), underwater landslides caused by earthquakes (the Grand Banka), and resuspension of suspended matenals by waves during storms are three possiblities. Turbidity currents can be erosive or depositional. vad. Student, St. Anthony Falls Hydraulic Lab.. Dept. of Civ. & Mineral Engrg, Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55414 "Bibi. and Assoc. Dir, St. Anthony Falls Hydraulic Lab. Dept. of Civ. & Min- cena Engtg., Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55834 Note Discussion open unt May 1, 1986, To extend the dosing date one month, _acwntfen request must be filed with the ASCE Manager of Journals. The menu- Sip for paper was suber cre and gal pian on fr if 20, 1984. This paper is part of the Journal o Enginecring, ME ipceekT ar L UN Satan pe No. 20216 varaINISTBS ots nist Rs Tow dks te popitt nelle ats Ros penance. Loi der all 2 ABST. excess by VELOCITY PROFILE Prone J evraanment ; or wate oF DePOSTION OF seoMent FIG, 1—Gradually Varied Turbidity Current (Schematic) ‘Temporarily varied erosive and depositive turbidity currents have been investigated by Pantin (2) and Parker (22). ‘A turbidity current with deposition and erosion is a flow in three com- ponents: clear ambient water, turbid water and sediment (bed material) The turbidity current entrains clear water into the flow and simulta- neously either deposits suspended sediment on the channel bed, or en- trains bed material into the flow. Actually a turbidity current entrains and deposits at the same time, but there is a net flux either to the bed (depositing current) or from the bed (entraining current). Turbidity cur- Torre sonoany rune Einnenr REFERENCE, LEVEL « ‘CHANNEL BED FIG, 2—Veloctty and Excess Density (Negative Buoyancy) Profile in a Turbidity . ‘Current 474INISTIS orsnest Rs Tas dnt te poplin ens Repos, sn cn ed Lk rh 2 [NST BE YT v rents are self-generated currents. The flow will vanish when all sus pended raters are deposited on the bottom, and grow when sed! ents are entrained from the bed. ‘The velocity profile of a turbulent turbidity current consists of two subregions. The point of maximum velocity and minimum shear pro” Sides she division (Fig. 2). Water entrainment is closely associated with turbulence generated in the uppe~ portion of the current (the outer layer fegon) while sediment entrainment is related to turbulence generated fear the channel bottom (the inner layer region). In some respects (¢ Velocity and concentration profile) the turbidity current resembles 2 tur pulent wall jet (24). Density profiles can be linear in the upper portion of the fow and similar to suspended sediment distribution in open flow in the lower portion (23) "To analyze the turbidity current, four basic relationships will be used: (1) A diffusion equation with a sink and source term to describe the Inechanism of sediment exchange between the flow and the bed: (2) @ Tonservation of volume equation: (3) a momentum equation; and (4) the turbulent energy equation, which is reduced to Bagnold’s auto-susper Son concept (4). The equations are first given in 2-D form, then verti- cally integrated. The layer-integrated equations are transformed inte fradually varied flow equations. They represent the extended form of those given by Ellison and Tumer (8). Goverwina Two-DIMENSIONAL EQUATIONS Fig. 1 shows that velocity and density distributions in a turbidity cur” renteare at least two-dimensional. Sediment concentration is assumed 10 Tesmnall enough to treat the mixture as a Newtonian fiuid. For a steady~ Bate flow the governing equations including boundary and Boussinesq approximations are 1. Continuity equation Seo . 20) 2. Diffusion equation a), 00 ta), HOO) yo oT ay ay Ey 2 @) 3, Momentum equation in x-direction 2) _ awe) o La 2 HO) 2 pcosady + bsine + == ye), ney 4, Turbulent energy equation . a a a z) 2 wre 7 cos8-2v'(k- 2) -E..- @ wag reg ay . a °. “ . In the preceding equations, x. y = coordinates; u, v = velocity compo” rents; F = shear stress; p = pressure; py = density of ambient (clear) 1475inisteS 96ST CNRS, Ts des epoca Raption ptt in ee. Li eral 192 | NIST DB € 4-80 fu TT water; V; = particle settling velocity; and E = energy dissipation due to viscosity. Fluctuating components are designated by primes. Reduced gravity (negative buoyancy) force (b) and turbulent kinetic energy (k) are defined, respectively, as babi ey, o vetetcteeee 6) 6) The density of the suspension p is related to concentration of sus- pended sediment c, density of solids p, and density of water py. Using a normalized (0 = ¢ = 1) concentration p= pc + pall ~ 6) veces or 2=140¢ bee ® Pe where o is the specific gravity of submerged sediment particles Thus # becomes BRO eee cseeee tere tetees oe a0) and the corresponding fluctuating component is Wea ge eeceeeees sesseesees ay Over the sloping bottom sediment particles are lifted upward perpen- dicular to the channel bed, i.e., in the y-direction, but fall downward in the direction of the gravity vector independent of the slope of the chan- nel bed. The sine component of the turbulent diffusion term 18 is ig- rored in Eqs. 2 and 4. VermicaL Inte@RATion oF Govenmina EQUATIONS Continuity and diffusion equations are integrated vertically from a(x) to H(a). The upper boundary of the turbidity current (y = H) is chosen such that uy = 0 and by = 0, based on experimental evidence (3,5). Con sequently H is by definition the turbidity current layer thickness. Eqs Vand 2 yield 1. Continuity af" a da . Af uaytou=4 | udy-u 2+ 0 if 4 af Ya 2. Diffusion + (02) at = : éf ubdy ~ (FB ~ V;bc08 8, 1476INISTB 3: owsnasteans Tas doe depois inten sts Rep, esto fs eis Lot dobre 2 NLS LB : » VX aie ve} yo j a da’ db, onl [oaren a] [ow \ Eq. 13 includes the assumption that b(x,y) = bs(2) from y = 0 '0 a(3), Fa. Tc Suoyancy force in the immediate vicinity of the bed is consid- ; | uncd as constant in the y-direction. If the right-hand side of Eq, 12, and the second term in the righthand side of Eq. 13 are negligible, the con- tinuity and diffusion equations give | af" / voceeseesecenseeseessensesseess (4) 1 bP aay = =o | dy = 0 ah, ~— | where 2; is an entrainment velocity with negative direction along the | sand Ae. tf aly = B= Hb a5) alee vic Daher C08 Os» cece as) MY Uf the preceding assumptions are to be valid (x) must be small. In open A the a hs sometimes been chosen a5 3% ofthe total low depth conn ee Manes the grain diameter dq Ifthe same fraction is used for the turbidity current a= 05H. 06) 3. Momentum t Similarly the momentum equation (3) yields : af" “ % Sffena-t ff wcsta freee cst In the momentum equation (17) no interfacial shear stress appears be~ cause u = Oaty =H. Evatuanow of Resuseension ano DPosmON SusPeNceD SEDIMENT DIFFUSION EQUATION, ‘To determine the suspended sediment diffusion 7B let us consider an equilibrium condition TP = bV,cos@. wees cece + (18) . Vis constant along the y-direction. We define Et = E,og as the sediment Ghtrainment function for buovancy force at location v ~ a(x) near the bed. (29) ws) (Gee Refs. 1, 21-22). Then Eq. 15 becomes (yl) fea one nBem \ - é[ budy =.V,(Ef ~ bcos 8) « we . (20) . ‘Thece conditions can be distinguished: Et ~ b, cos @ = 0 (equilibrium); Erb, cos > 0 (erosion); E? ~ bcos 8 < 0 (deposition). “an .INISTES (HE PNSTOS T di ppt enc cs Rin ermine in te Lit INST SE Or. 1, Evaluation of ES (hed (= Vion): H = flow depth; R, = part.cle Reynolds number = "D.VagD,/v; and v = kinematic viscosity of water. ‘An empirical formula which was obtained by analysis of laboratory and field suspended sediment data for open channel flow will be used (1). For uniform sediment particles i) gs304 \ th open channel ow Ee. 7A 4 ee “iH sir $e) aa(Z a) vs soe cee QD Nd yy where D, = grain size of sediment particles; us = shear velocity at the ve == (3) sss 8 or E,=0.3 for 22134... «+ (2c) Eqs. 222 and 22c as well as data from various sources are shown in Fig. 3. In the range 5 < z < 134 the E,(z) function is very steep. This in- icates a rather “explosive” behavior with regard to entrainment. Eq. On 222 is only an approximation of this behavior. Similarly steep functions. To have previously been proposed by Engelund and Fredsoe (9) and Itakura % and Kishi (5). The laboratory data used were obtained by Einstein and Chien: Vanoni; Vanoni and Nomicas; and Straub and Anderson; the field data were from the Bernalillo, the Socorro and the Niobrara River. Meth- ods of data analysis and complete references are given in Ref. 1. 2. Determination of Negative Buoyancy Force b, or Concentration ¢, at y = 1 above the bed. ‘A relationship between concentration near the bed (¢,) and mean con- centration C in the current can be established by integrating the con- centration profile. Parker (22) obtained a relation by integrating Rouse's (23) profile for open channel flow from ¢ = 0.05 H to H. [as . The concentration profiles in open channel flow and in turbidity currents are different, in particular, in the upper portion (Fig. 2). The concentra- tion profile in the turbidity current is a combination of free shear flow {upper part) and a boundary layer flow (lower part), provided that there is enough turbulence to meet the condition V; < V6". Therefore Eq. 23 is modified to where m is a factor to account for the difference of concentration profiles re 23) 2)INISTEe 3 etses0ast os Tax das de pop neat anes Repo, pcan i ee Lid el LNT STP FIG, 3—Sediment Entrainment Function (E.) in turbidity currents and open channels, and 5; is a shape factor ob- tained by Ellison and Turner (8) (S: = 0.6 ~ 0.9). The shape factor (S:) for self-preserving surface buoyant jets has a value of 0.75 (Ref. 6 and 26). It coincides with the mean value of Ellison and Tumer’s result (8). Eq, 24 gives the b, value for a noneroding or depositing density current Vue 0. Eva.uanion oF Bep SHEAR iN MomeNTum EQUATION 1, Bagnold Autosuspension Term Bagnold (4) introduced the concept of autosuspension for turbidity currents from the energy balance point of view. The Bagnold term ApH wreINISTBY ots n0sT ORs Tes ce de pert nelomale tats Reson tn iin Lida 12 | NST DR (V./U) measured the power required to hold sediment in suspension. Bagnold’s term originates from the buoyancy flux term D'v' cos in the turbulent energy Eq. 4. This term describes work done against negative buovancy forces due to vertical density gradients. Considering the total energy balance in an equilibrium state, Eq. 4 with Bi? = Vi yields [ r way ovycoseay + f Edy 2 tS P ¥ D where P = layer integrated turbulent energy production (= mean flow energy loss): F = layer integrated work done against negative buoyancy force; and D = layer integrated turbulent energy dissipation. Total energy available from gravity is S;BHU sin 0, and F is 5.8V,H os 8. Therefore the total energy balance in an equilibrium state is S2BHU (sin 8 = V-C08) = Dovseeeecoeee - +. 8) The Bagnold term can be explicitly obtained from the energy balance. However, the magnitude of the turbulent dissipation term (D) cannot be evaluated properly without the knowledge of velocity and density profiles as well as turbulence properties. Itis therefore difficult to verify Bagnold’s concept (19). ;__ The velocity profile of an accelerating supercritical turbidity current is expected to be similar to that of a homogeneous wall jet (e.g., Ref. 24). A difference between the two profiles will be caused by (1) stratification | and 2) suspended sediment settling. Velocity profiles may be skewed (25) by these two factors, and consequently production of turbulent energy increases in magnitude. The velocity profiles of the turbidity current and wall jet can be related in the form QA Sloot) where and u = local velocities of the homogeneous wall jet and tur- hear velocity of turbidity current, Fi, bidity current, respectively. we piadient Richardson qumber defined as Ri, = ~3(dp/dz)/p(du dz). | It is known that i follows a similarity law (28) ime fn), Where = 8 Under the assumption that properties of the turbidity current also follow the similarity law the simplest formulation is = 9) seseeeeses BO)INISTE © 16INST CNRS. Ta depp ine es Rapin, pin ines Li do NST BEF s(n) is the similarity function defined 2s Ri BO) aR cee ce GD Bq, 29 can be written = 2) Sat mi gem + gr lt male ‘The shear stress at the bed of the turbidity current (t)) can be expressed pao (coe = (33) ws u. ro) and Coo = where %, = bedshear stress for a wall jet. The first term in parenthesis is the wall shear stress due to the homogeneous flow and the second. term is an additive shear stress equivalent to Bagnold’s autosuspension term. Eq. 33 indicates that the bottom shear increases as stratification and settling velocity of sediment particles increases. In high velocity cur- rents the additive effect is not appreciable. Luthi (18) has used an expression for bottom shear similar to Eq. 33. : 2, Estimation of Drag Coefficient at the Bed (Coo) Many detailed measurements in homogeneous turbulent wall jets are available in the literature (e.g., Refs. 14 and 24). Schwarz and Cosart 24) gave 01109 ee : cece 85) Hines fon a smooth bottom. By equating #, in Eqs. 34 and 35 one finds 20 ° 5 rr FG. 1 —Typleal Velocity Profiles of Plane Wall Jet 481The ratio of tay. to U is typically on the order of two (Fig. 4). Hence, Coo = (2)-(1.108 * 104) = 0.02. Ellison and Turner (8) found this same value in their laboratory experiments. Hebbert, et al. (10) obtained Coy = 0.0151 for their plunging flow study. Coo = 0.02 is considered to be a reasonable value for the flow over a smooth bed; however, a natural bed may be hydraulically rough, ie., due to the existence of bedforms (dunes, ripples). The effect of rough- ness isnot included in this study. ‘Summary OF 1-D (VermicALty InrecnareD) Goventana EQUATIONS The layer integrated equations of the turbidity current are given as follows: 1. Continuity d Fe (hUlt = Ent : 2. Diffusion (38) 1 C05 8) 4 _ (ABU) = Vues 3, Momentum 4 ld y 4 gun +! 4 (6, BHP cos 6) = in RIM) ue FG UPH) + 5 F (Ss BH? cos 8) = S,BH i (Coos Ri eu @9) Volumetric flux, buoyancy flux and flow force in erosive or depositive turbidity currents are not conserved. Layer-averaged properties as used in the aforementioned are denoted by capital letters. Shape factors f, through f, and 5, and S, are introduced to account for velocity and density distributions. Shape factors are de- fined as follows: uth» [Cady corn ones oo) unig [ Udy. cesses ay - wrt [ dy + (2) Bis, = [ atydy.... feeeeessees (3) sis=| bay 4) 1482INISTB 3. 019% past CRS Tas desde pops nena és Repost, eps ihn nee Loi aera | NIST ‘An entrainment coefficient for water is defined as a + 8) The entrainment coefficient E. is known to be a function of Richardson number Ri only, Ashida and Egashira (3), for example, proposed the following form: + 6) where @ is an empirical constant = 0.0015, and i is defined in Eq. 30. ‘The data which led to this relationship were reproduced in Fig. 5 of Ref. 2. Graouatty Variep Flow Eouarion fon 4 Tunsiorry Cunnent ‘The vertically integrated governing equations given in Section Il are developed into the following gradually varied flow equations: saan [CEG] 2) ines oF (2) ow (GPa) a fees veers G8) (§)} et —hes fi 2h 1483