Assessing and modelling the interactions of instrumented particles with bed surface at low transport conditions

Alhusban, Z. and Valyrakis, M. (2021) Assessing and modelling the interactions of instrumented particles with bed surface at low transport conditions. Applied Sciences, 11(16), 7306. (doi: 10.3390/app11167306)

Abstract

Sediment transport at near threshold to low transport stages (below the continuous transport) can still be affected by flow turbulence and its dynamics can benefit from further comprehensive studies. This study uses an instrumented particle embedded with micro electromechanical sensors (MEMS) to allow tracking the motions and forces acting on it, leading to and during its transport. Instrumented particle transport experiments were carried out at laboratory flume under a range of flow conditions. The probability distributions functions (PDFs) of bed load particle instantaneous velocities, hop distances and associated travel times (measured from start to stop of transport) were obtained for all the performed experiments with varying flow rates and particle density. The modelled distributions are useful and enable a deeper understanding of bed load sediment transport dynamics from a Lagrangian perspective. Furthermore, the results analyzed from the instrumented particle (including the particle’s transport mode) were validated using visual particle tracking methods (top and side cameras). The findings of this study demonstrate that for the range of turbulent flows trialed herein, the instrumented particle can be a useful, accessible, and low-cost tool for obtaining particle transport dynamics, having demonstrated satisfactory potential for field deployment in the near future.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This research was supported by the Royal Society (Research Grant RG2015 R1 68793/1) and the Royal Society of Edinburgh (Crucible Award).
• Keywords: Sediment transport, turbulent flows, particle hopping, probability distribution function (PDF), micro-electromechanical sensors (MEMS), river engineering.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Valyrakis, Dr Manousos

Creator Roles

Valyrakis, M.: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing

• Authors: Alhusban, Z., and Valyrakis, M.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Infrastructure and Environment
• Journal Name: Applied Sciences
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 2076-3417
• ISSN (Online): 2076-3417
• Published Online: 09 August 2021
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Applied Sciences 11(16): 7306
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License