Open water disposal of barged sediment

• Main Author: Er, Jenn Wei
• Other Authors: Law Wing-Keung, Adrian
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Civil engineering::Water resources
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/69553
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Coastal activities, like land reclamation and dredging, usually involve open water sediment disposal, and they are being conducted intensively around the world. The near-source transport of disposed sediment is directly related to the method that the sediments are released, so it is essential to consider realistic physical conditions in order to improve engineering and environmental assessments. The present study focused on the release of sediment from bottom-split barges, which are commonly deployed to transport and dispose sediments, due to their large carrying capacity. A model, BSDM (Barged Sediment Disposal Model) was first developed to assess the behavior of sediment clouds due to barge disposal in the convective descent phase. Upon impact on the seabed, the intrusion of the collapsed cloud was then investigated as a gravity current, and a modified Box-Model was developed to simulate the motion. The last part of the study investigated the formation of a new regime, within which sediments descend through the water column as sediment clumps.