Author(s): Qing Zhang; Gudrun Hillebrand; Hans Moser; Reinhard Hinkelmann
Linked Author(s): Gudrun Hillebrand, Reinhard Hinkelmann
Keywords: Sediment transport; Sensitivity analysis; Settling velocity; The active layer; Grain size distribution
Abstract: Numerical models have been widely used to calculate long-term sediment deposition and erosion in reservoirs. This study investigates the river morphodynamic processes in the Iffezheim reservoir at the Upper Rhine River in Germany with nonuniform bed composition. The computational fluid dynamic model SSIIM is applied to calculate the flow. SSIIM solves the three-dimensional Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations with the k-εturbulence model on unstructured grids. The suspended load transport is simulated with the convection-diffusion equation, and the equilibrium sediment concentration is calculated by the empirical formula of van Rijn (2007) .Nine sediment size fractions are chosen to represent the nonuniform sediment mixture. The purpose of the study is to determine the sensitivity of a set of parameters on the results and investigate whether the bed elevation changes can be accurately simulated. During the simulation of the morphological changes with constant sediment inflow in the Iffezheim reservoir, it has been observed that minor changes in the morphodynamic parameters significantly influence the results concerning the sediment erosion and deposition, e. g. the settling velocity, the thickness of the sediment active layer and the numerical parameters time step and number of iterations for the sediment transport equation. The impact of these parameters on the bed change is investigated in the study and the accordingly chosen parameter values are applied in the ensuing time-dependent simulation. The erosion and deposition predictions have been compared to measured data of regular bed change surveys. The results of the simulations are in reasonably well agreement with the measured data.
Year: 2015