Frequency spectra and intermittency of the turbulent suspension process in a sand-bed river |
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| Authors: | MICHEL F LAPOINTE |
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| Institution: | Department of Geography, McGill University, 105 Sherbrooke St. W., Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2K6 |
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| Abstract: | Previous research suggests that the turbulence-driven suspension process in sand-bed channels is dominated by intermittent, energetic eddies with length scales of the order of channel depth. Because of the scarcity of data on the turbulent suspension process in alluvial channels, the possible variability in suspension intermittency and turbulent frequency content due to contrasts in flow depth, velocity or bedforms remains unclear however. The present study analyses eddy correlation suspension signals from seven deployments in varied flow conditions around a sandy meander bend. Deployment depths at near-bankfull flow stages varied from 2 to 5.5 m, velocities at 0.75–1 m height from 0.6 to 0.9 m s?1 and local mean suspended sand concentrations ranged from 30 to 150 mg L?1 in the intermittence and spectral content of sand suspension between the various deployments are analysed and results are compared with previously published findings. Study data suggest that the dominant eddy sizes involved in sediment mixing across the sensor level are consistently of the order of 1–5 times flow depth and lie within the ‘energy-bearing’ turbulent range. When sand suspension is analysed in the time domain in the various deployments, energetic, burst-like suspension events occupying only 1-5% of the record duration account for 20-90% of the suspension work. The degree of intermittence in the suspension process was observed to increase in deeper flows, where mixing events contributing extreme vertical sediment fluxes appear to be relatively more frequent. |
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