Author(s): Thomas Wenka
Linked Author(s):
Keywords: Rhine river; Wesel-Xanten; Artificial grain feeding; Sediment management; Graded sedimentransport; 2D depth-average numerical model
Abstract: The Wesel-Xanten stretch of the river Rhine between 812.5 km and 821.5 km is one of the reaches where strong erosion leads to high maintenance efforts concerning navigability. In order to improve the navigation conditions without aggravating the flood protection, but also ensuring that the ecological system of the river is not damaged, investigations of the morphodynamical processes in connection with artificial grain feeding activities have to be carried out by Federal Waterways Engineering and Research Institute. The performance of artificial grain feeding along a stretch of the lower Rhine near Wesel to prevent bed erosion by balancing sediment transport was simulated in a scientific way by sensitivity studies in a 2D depth-average numerical model with graded sediment transport approach. The target of the investigations is to study the interaction of bed load supply and hydro-/morphodynamical features, and then especially to analyze and control the grain feeding measures in this section of the Rhine river. First the administrative background and target of artificial grain feeding along the waterways and then the special features regarding flow and transport characteristics of the stretch are described. After introducing shortly the mathematical basis for modelling graded sediment transport and some special treatments for the case of artificial grain feeding activities, some validation results for graded sediment are discussed. A series of numerical simulations with the objective of testing the model sensitivity to different model parameters has been carried out. Further, results of numerical simulations for the case of grain feeding are presented.
Year: 2004