Fluctuations of Suspended Sediment Concentration and Turbulent Sediment Fluxes in an Open-Channel Flow

A complex problem of turbulent-sediment interactions in an open-channel flow is approached experimentally, using specially designed field experiments in an irrigation canal. The experimental design included synchronous measurements of instantaneous three-dimensional (3D) velocities and suspended sediment concentration using acoustic Doppler velocimeters (ADV) and a water sampling system. Various statistical measures of sediment concentration fluctuations, turbulent sediment fluxes, and diffusion coefficients for fluid momentum and sediment are considered. Statistics, fractal behavior, and contributions of bursting events to vertical fluxes of fluid momentum and sediment are evaluated using quadrant analysis. It has been found that both turbulence and sediment events are organized in fractal clusters which introduce additional characteristic time and spatial scales into the problem and should be further explored. It is also shown that Barenblatt’s theory of sediment-laden flows appears to be a good approximation of experimental data.