CEE 598, GEOL 593

TURBIDITY CURRENTS: MORPHODYNAMICS AND DEPOSITS

LECTURE 6
HYDRAULICS AND SEDIMENT TRANSPORT:
RIVERS AND TURBIDITY CURRENTS

Head of a turbidity current in the laboratory 1

From PhD thesis of M. H. Garcia
STREAMWISE VELOCITY AND CONCENTRATION PROFILES:
RIVER AND TURBIDITY CURRENT
u = local streamwise flow velocity averaged over turbulence
c = local streamwise volume suspended sediment concentration averaged
over turbulence
z = upward normal direction (nearly vertical in most cases of interest)

air

clear
river water
u
z
c
u
z
c turbidity
current
2
VELOCITY AND CONCENTRATION PROFILES BEFORE AND
AFTER A HYDRAULIC JUMP

The jump is caused by a break in slope

Garcia and Parker (1989)

3
 VOLUME FLUX OF FLOWING FLUID AND SUSPENDED
SEDIMENT
The flux of any quantity is the rate at which it crosses a section per unit time
per unit area.
So flux = discharge/area

A

x ut utA

The fluid volume that crosses the section in time t is Aut

The suspended sediment volume that crosses is cAut
The streamwise momentum that crosses is wuAut

The fluid volume flux = u

The suspended sediment volume flux = uc
4
The streamwise momentum flux = wu2
 LAYER-AVERAGED QUANTITIES: RIVER
In the case of a river, layer = depth
H = flow depth
U = layer-averaged flow velocity
C = layer-averaged volume suspended sediment concentration
(based on flux)
Now let
qw = fluid volume discharge per unit width (normal to flow)
qs = suspended sediment discharge per unit width (normal to flow)

discharge/width = integral of flux in upward normal direction

H
qw   udz
0
H
qs   ucdz
0 5
 FOR A RIVER:
Flux-based average values U and C

H qw 1 H
qw   udz  UH or U    udz
0 H H0
H qs 1 H
qs   ucdz  UCH or C    ucdz
0 qw UH 0
air
U
Or thus
C

1 H
U   udz z
H 0 u
1 H
C
UH 0 ucdz c
6
 LAYER-AVERAGED QUANTITIES: TURBIDITY CURRENT

The upper interface is diffuse!

So how do we define U, C, H?

clear
water

u
c turbidity
current
7
 USE THREE INTEGRALS, NOT TWO
Let
qw = fluid volume discharge per unit width
qs = suspended sediment discharge per unit width
qm = forward momentum discharge per unit width

Integrate in z to “infinity.” 
qw   udz
0
clear 
water qs   ucdz
0


z
qm   w  u2dz
0
u
c turbidity
current
8
 FOR A TURBIDITY CURRENT


qw   udz  UH
0
Three equations determine three

qs   ucdz  UCH unknowns U, C, H, which can be
computed from u(z) and c(z).
0

qm   w  u dz   wU H
2 2
0

clear
water
U
C
H

c z 9
 BED SHEAR STRESS AND SHEAR VELOCITY
Consider a river or turbidity current channel that is wide and can be
approximated as rectangular.

The bed shear stress b is the force per unit area with which the flow pulls
the bed downstream (bed pulls the flow upstream) [ML-1T-2]

The bed shear stress is related to the flow velocity through a dimensionless
bed resistance coefficient (bed friction coefficient) Cf, where
b
Cf 
 wU2
The bed shear velocity u [L/T] is defined as

b
u 
w
Between the above two equations,
U where Cz = dimensionless Chezy
 Cz  C f 1/ 2 10
u resistance coefficient
 SOME DIMENSIONLESS PARAMETERS
D = grain size [L]
 = kinematic viscosity of water [L2/T], ~ 1x10-6 m2/s
g = gravitational acceleration [L/T2]
R = submerged specific gravity of sediment [1]

Froude number ~ (inertial force)/(gravitational force)

U U
Fr  (river ) Frd  ( turb curr )
gH RCgH

Flow Reynolds number ~ (inertial force)/viscous force): must be >~ 500 for
turbulent flow
UH
Re 

Particle Reynolds number ~ (dimensionless particle size)3/2

RgD D
Rep 
 11
 SOME DIMENSIONLESS PARAMETERS contd.
Shields number ~ (impelling force on bed particle/ resistive force on bed
particle): characterizes sediment mobility

 b C f U2 u2
   
RgD RgD RgD

Now let c denote the “critical” Shields number at the threshold of motion of
a particle of size D and submerged specific gravity R. Modified Shields
relation:

  0. 6 ( 7.7 Re p0.6 )
  0.5 [0.22 Re
c p  0.06  10 ]

12
 SHIELDS DIAGRAM

0.1

0.09 The silt-sand and sand-gravel

0.08
borders correspond to the values
of Rep computed with R = 1.65,  =
0.07 0.01 cm2/s and D = 0.0625 mm
0.06 and 2 mm, respectively.
tc*

0.05

0.04 motion
0.03

0.02
no motion
0.01 silt sand gravel
0
1 10 100 1000 10000 100000 1000000
Rep 13
 CRITERION FOR SIGNIFICANT SUSPENSION
u
~ 1
vs
But recall
u u RgD 
 
vs RgD v s Re f

vs RgD D
where Rf  and Rep 
RgD 

u
Thus the condition 1
vs
and the relation of Dietrich (1982): R f  R f (Rep )

specifies a unique curve sus  function(Re p )

defining the threshold for significant suspension. 14

 SHIELDS DIAGRAM WITH CRITERION FOR SIGNIFICANT
SUSPENSION
Suspension is significant when u/vs >~ 1

10
bedload and suspended load transport

u  v s
negligible suspension
1
suspension


 bf 50
motion
0.1

bedload transport

no motion
silt sand gravel
0.01
1.E+00 1.E+01 1.E+02 1.E+03 1.E+04 1.E+05 1.E+06

Rep 15
 NORMAL OPEN-CHANNEL FLOW IN A WIDE CHANNEL

Normal flow is an equilibrium state defined by a perfect balance

between the downstream gravitational impelling force and resistive
bed force. The resulting flow is constant in time and in the
downstream, or x direction.

Parameters:
bBx x
x = downstream coordinate [L]
H = flow depth [L]
U = flow velocity [L/T]
qw = water discharge per unit width [L2T-1]
x  H
B = width [L] B
Qw = qwB = water discharge [L3/T] gHxBS
g = acceleration of gravity [L/T2]
 = bed angle [1]
b = bed boundary shear stress [M/L/T2] The bed slope angle  of the great
S = tan = streamwise bed slope [1] majority of alluvial rivers is sufficiently
(cos   1; sin   tan   S) small to allow the approximations
w = water density [M/L3] 16
sin   tan   S , cos   1
 THE DEPTH-SLOPE RELATION FOR NORMAL OPEN-
CHANNEL FLOW
Conservation of water mass (= conservation of water volume as water
can be treated as incompressible):
qw  UH Q w  qwB  UHB
Conservation of downstream momentum:
Impelling force (downstream component of weight of water) =
resistive force
 w gHBx sin    w gHBxS  bBx
bBx x
Reduce to obtain depth-
slope product rule for normal
flow:
b   w gHS x  H
B
gHxBS
u  gHS 17
 THE CONCEPT OF BANKFULL DISCHARGE IN RIVERS
Let  denote river stage (water surface elevation) [L]
and Q denote volume water discharge [L3/T]. In the
case of rivers with floodplains,  tends to increase
rapidly with increasing Q when all the flow is confined
to the channel, but much less rapidly when the flow
spills significantly onto the floodplain. The rollover in
the curve defines bankfull discharge Qbf.
Bankfull flow ~ channel-forming flow???

Minnesota River and

floodplain, USA, during the
Qbf record flood of 1965
18
Q
 PARAMETERS USED TO CHARACTERIZE
BANKFULL CHANNEL GEOMETRY OF RIVERS

In addition to a bankfull discharge, a reach of an alluvial river with a

floodplain also has a characteristic average bankfull channel width and
average bankfull channel depth. The following parameters are used to
characterize this geometry.

Definitions:

Qbf = bankfull discharge [L3/T]

Bbf = bankfull width [L]
Hbf = bankfull depth [L]
S = bed slope [1]
Ds50 = median surface grain size [L]
= kinematic viscosity of water [L2/T]
R = (s/ – 1) = sediment submerged specific gravity (~ 1.65 for natural
sediment) [1]
g = gravitational acceleration [L/T2] 19
 SETS OF DATA USED TO CHARACTERIZE RIVERS

Sand-bed rivers D  0.5 mm

Sand-bed rivers D > 0.5 mm
Large tropical sand-bed rivers
Gravel-bed rivers
Rivers from Japan (gravel and sand)

20
 SHIELDS DIAGRAM AT BANKFULL FLOW
Compared to rivers, turbidity
100
currents have to be biased
sand-bed gravel-bed
toward this region to be
suspension-driven!
10
Sand-bed D < 0.5 mm
Sand bed D > 0.5 mm
Gravel-bed
1 motion threshold
suspension threshold
t*

0.0625 mm
2 mm
0.1
16 mm
0.5 mm
Japan
0.01 Large Tropical Sand

0.001
1.E+00 1.E+01 1.E+02 1.E+03 1.E+04 1.E+05 1.E+06
Rep 21
 FROUDE NUMBER AT BANKFULL FLOW
10

Turbidity currents?
1
Sand-bed D < 0.5 mm
Sand bed D > 0.5 mm
Frbf

Gravel-bed
Large Tropical Sand
0.1

U U
Fr  (river ) Frd  ( turb curr )
gH RCgH
0.01
0.00001 0.0001 0.001 0.01 0.1
S 22
DIMENSIONLESS CHEZY RESISTANCE COEFFICIENT AT
BANKFULL FLOW
100
Turbidity currents?

Sand-bed D < 0.5 mm

Sand bed D > 0.5 mm
Czbf

10
Gravel-bed
Large Tropical Sand

1
0.00001 0.0001 0.001 0.01 0.1
S 23
 DIMENSIONLESS WIDTH-DEPTH RATIO AT BANKFULL
FLOW
1000
Turbidity currents?

100
Sand-bed D < 0.5 mm
Bbf/Hbf

Sand bed D > 0.5 mm

Gravel-bed
Large Tropical Sand
10

1
0.00001 0.0001 0.001 0.01 0.1
24
S
 THE DEPTH-SLOPE RELATION FOR BED SHEAR STRESS
DOES NOT NECESSARILY WORK FOR TURBIDITY
CURRENTS!

In a river, there is frictional

resistance not only at the bed, but
also at the water-air interface.
Thus if I denotes the interfacial
air shear stress, the normal flow
ti relation generalizes to:

river
b  i   w gHS
u
But in a wide variety of cases of
c interest, I at an air-water interface
is so small compared to b that it
tb can be neglected.
25
A TURBIDITY CURRENT CAN HAVE SIGNIFICANT FRICTION
ASSOCIATED WITH ITS INTERFACE

If a turbidity current were to attain

normal flow conditions,

b  i   w gHS
clear
water where

ti b   w C f U 2

i   w C fiU2
u and Cf denotes a bed friction
c turbidity coefficient and Cfi denotes an
current interfacial frictional coefficient.
tb But turbidity currents do not easily
26
attain normal flow conditions!
 REFERENCES

Garcia and Parker (1989)

27