Storm Impacts on Sediment Deposition at a River-Coastal Confluence

To remain a viable harbor the Maumee River/Lake confluence requires continuous dredging of two permanent bed mounds; the goal of this paper is to research the sediment transport characteristics under storms in the confluence region, with the objective of seeking the origin and physics of the two mobile sediment mounds in the navigation channel of the river. An integrated three dimensional, hydrodynamic, sediment transport, wave current bottom boundary layer, and wave model is applied to simulate the hydrodynamics and sediment transport. A curvilinear grid system with 208 by 79 cells in the horizontal direction and 12 sigma layers in the vertical direction is used to cover the whole lake and the 12 km long dredged channel of the Maumee River. Four sediment transport application cases are constructed under strong and weak storms in spring and fall. The numerical simulation results reveal the sediment transport and formulation mechanisms of the two mobile sediments mounds in the Maumee River/Lake Erie confluence under storms. Under strong storms/seiches, Mound 1, the upstream on, is mainly formed by riverine sediment inflow and settlement while Mound 2, the downstream one, is mainly formed by sediment resuspension in the river bottom upstream of Mound 2. During weak storms both Mounds 1 and 2 are maintained by riverine sediment settlement with bottom sediment upstream of Mound 1 being the vertical thermal stratification exists in spring, but not in fall. This stratification influences the sediment transport in the river/coastal confluence. Under both strong and weak storms/seiches, the riverine sediment deposition at Mound 1 is more in spring than in fall, but more in fall than in spring at Mound 2; the total sediment transport into the Maumee Bay is more in fall than in spring.

• Availability:
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• Corporate Authors:

  American Society of Civil Engineers

  1801 Alexander Bell Drive
  Reston, VA  United States  20191-4400
• Authors:
  • Guo, Yong
  • Bedford, Keith W
  • Welsh, David J
• Conference:
  • Estuarine and Coastal Modeling. Eighth International Conference
  • Location: Monterey California, United States
  • Date: 2003-11-3 to 2003-11-5
• Publication Date: 2004

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 1054-1074
• Monograph Title: Estuarine and Coastal Modeling

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Applications; Coastal engineering; Coastal zone management; Hydrodynamics; Impacts; Numerical analysis; Rivers; Sediment discharge; Sediments; Simulation; Storms; Waves
• Subject Areas: Hydraulics and Hydrology; Marine Transportation; Policy; Research; Terminals and Facilities;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01005865
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0784407347
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Oct 21 2005 7:59AM