Author(s): M. Tritthart; M. Liedermann; H. Habersack
Linked Author(s): Michael Tritthart
Keywords: Bed load; Non-uniform sediment transport; Sorting processes; Numerical modelling; Field measurements; Danube River
Abstract: In the scope of a river engineering project implemented in a 3 kilometre reach of the Austrian Danube to the East of Vienna, bed load transport was measured in several cross-sections during the entire discharge spectrum over the course of four consecutive years. In addition, a 2D/3D integrated numerical sediment transport model capable of calculating non-uniform bed load transport under consideration of sorting processes was set up for the river reach. A periodicity in bed load transport rates of 15 hours for a 1-year flood and over 30 hours for mean flow was determined from transient sediment transport simulations, resulting from sorting waves and the downstream migration of bed forms. The plausibility of these results was confirmed by radio acoustic tracer experiments. Average bed load transport rates as well as their variability range obtained from measurements during equal discharge classes at different sampling dates were predicted correctly by non-uniform modelling with sorting processes.
Year: 2011