Publication Date:
2022-10-27
Description:
© The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Tarpley, D. R. N., Harris, C. K., Friedrichs, C. T., & Sherwood, C. R. Tidal variation in cohesive sediment distribution and sensitivity to flocculation and bed consolidation in an idealized, partially mixed estuary. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, 7(10), (2019): 334, doi: 10.3390/jmse7100334.
Description:
Particle settling velocity and erodibility are key factors that govern the transport of sediment through coastal environments including estuaries. These are difficult to parameterize in models that represent mud, whose properties can change in response to many factors, including tidally varying suspended sediment concentration (SSC) and shear stress. Using the COAWST (Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere-Wave-Sediment Transport) model framework, we implemented bed consolidation, sediment-induced stratification, and flocculation formulations within an idealized two-dimensional domain that represented the longitudinal dimension of a micro-tidal, muddy, partially mixed estuary. Within the Estuarine Turbidity Maximum (ETM), SSC and median floc diameter varied by a factor of four over the tidal cycle. Downstream of the ETM, the median floc size and SSC were several times smaller and showed less tidal variation (~20% or less). The suspended floc distributions only reached an equilibrium size as a function of SSC and shear in the ETM at peak tidal flow. In general, flocculation increased particle size, which reduced SSC by half in the ETM through increased settling velocity. Consolidation also limited SSC by reduced resuspension, which then limited floc growth through reduced SSC by half outside of the ETM. Sediment-induced stratification had negligible effects in the parameter space examined. Efforts to lessen the computation cost of the flocculation routine by reducing the number of size classes proved difficult; floc size distribution and SSC were sensitive to specification of size classes by factors of 60% and 300%, respectively.
Description:
This research was funded by NSF, grant number OCE-1459708.
Keywords:
COAWST
;
Numerical model
;
Flocculation dynamics
;
Cohesive sediment
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Article
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