AFM, Maison de la Mécanique, 39/41 rue Louis Blanc, 92400 Courbevoie, France(FR)
Abstract
Studying the suspended sediments concentration (SSC) is of critical interest for water management. However, acquiring information on suspended sediment concentration (SSC) through direct in situ measurements has always been a challenging task due to technical difficulties especially in flows where the character of suspended materials changes frequently. Ideally, researchers would like to be able to measure the suspended-sediment concentration at all points in a given river. Regarding the cost in terms of material and labor time, they simplify the task to the measurement at all points in a cross section, the measurement along one vertical or even the measurement at one point. Each time the procedure includes a smaller portion of the river, spatial error becomes grater. Regarding all these difficulties, numerical modeling is used instead of or coupled with in situ measurement to optimize the cost of studying suspended sediments concentration. Various numerical and analytical formulas of different order of complexity are used to represent SSC, and knowing the complexity of transport in rivers, it is still impossible to have a universal profile. In this context, we are interested into establishing an innovative model to predict SSC in river flows. The model suggested in the present study is obtained by combining the properties of the sediment diffusivity coefficients of the parabolic constant model and of the model presented by Itakura and Kishi (1980). The model established is validated with a range of experimental data