Contaminant release from bottom sediments in rivers is one of the＂ main problems to study the environmental hydrodyna- mics. Contaminant will release into the overlying water column under different hydrodynamic conditions through pore-water in sedi- ment, the release mechanism can be roughly divided into convection diffusion, molecular diffusion and adsorption/desorption. In this article, phosphorus was as a typical contaminant with sorption. Through theoretical analysis of the contaminant release, according to different particle-sized and hydraulic conditions, the mathematics model of contaminant release can be established by the coupled Navier-Stokes equation, Darcy equation, solute transport equation and adsorption/desorption equation. Then that model was verified by flume experiment. Numerical studies show that, under different velocity, the instantaneous concentration of convection diffusion is about 6 times to 50 times larger than that of molecular diffusion during initial stages. The concentration of molecular diffusion is about 1 times to 4 times larger than to that of convection diffusion during late stages. Through analysis, the diffusive boundary layer near the interface can be obtained. In addition, the release will increase with particle size decreasing, and the release will be influe- nced much more by the size change when the particle size is relatively big under different velocity.
Pollutants release is highly consistent with suspended sediment concentration （SSC） in water column, especially during re-suspension and transport events. The present research focuses on pollutant dynamic release from re-suspended sediment, especially the vertical distribution relationship between them. The sediment erosion experiments on a series of uniform flow are conducted in a circulate flume. Reactive tracer （phosphorus） is used as the contaminant in fine-grained sediments to identify the release characteristic length and time. Experimental results show that the flow condition near-bed depends on the sediment surface roughness. The region with high turbulent intensities corresponds to a high concentration sediment layer. In addition, the SSC decreases with the distance, water depth, and particle grain size. The sediment in a smaller grain size takes much more time to reach equilibrium concentration. Total phosphorus （TP） concentration changes along the water depth as SSC in the initial re-suspension stage, appearing in two obvious concentration regimes： the upper low-concentration layer and the high-concentration near-bottom layer. This layered phenomenon remains for about 3 hours until SSC distri- bution tends to be uniform. Longitudinal desorption plays an important role in long-way transport to reduce the amount of suspended sediment in water column.
Particle size, porosity, and the initial phosphorus concentration in sediments are the main factors affecting phosphorus release flux through the sediment-water interface. Sediments can be physically divided to muddy and sandy matters, and the adsorption-desorption capacity of sediment with phosphorus depends on particle size. According to phosphorus adsorption-desorption experiments, phosphorus sorption capacity of the sediment decreases with the increase of particle dimension. But among the size-similar particles, sediment with a bigger particle size has the larger initial phosphorus release rate. In terms of muddy and sandy sediments, there are inversely proportional relationships between the release rate and the flux. Due to the contact of surface sediment and the overlying water, the release flux from the sediment is either from direct desorption of surface sediment layer or from the diffusion of pore water in the sediment layer, which is mainly determined by sediment particle size and porosity. Generally, static phosphorus release process may include two stages: the first is the initial release. As for coarse particles, phosphorus is desorbed from surface sediment. And for fine particles, phosphorus concentration in water often decreases, mainly from pore water by the molecular diffusion. During the second stage, pore water flows faster in coarse sediment, and phosphorus is easy to desorb from the surface of the particles as diffusion dominates. For the smaller liquid-solid ratio of fine particles and the larger amount of phosphorus adsorption, the release flux from pore water due to diffusion is very small with longer sorption duration.
Hydrodynamic effects play a very important role in the contaminants release from sediments. Experiments were performed to study contaminants releasing characteristics due to resuspension. The time-dependent variation of COD concentration and relative roles under static and dynamic state of the overlying water were analyzed. Experimental results showed that COD concen- tration in the water column got a striking increment on the dynamic conditions, mainly by reducing the thickness of concentration boundary layer near sediment-water interface and destructing the surface structure of sediment. Hydrodynamics increased contamina- nts release rates and flux in unit time. Before reaching an equilibrium stage, the dynamic release caused by the resuspension was more effective than static one due to molecular diffusion. The release rate of COD increased with flow velocity and decreased with water depth. But at a shallow water depth, wave effects would dominate the causing resuspension, resulting in contaminants release in large quantity. The intensity of pollutant release increased with time in a rather circuitous process. The diffusion of pollutant from internal sediment to the sediment-water interface would maintain the endogenous release effects.
The two-phase flow structure and particle dispersion for a dilute particle-laden jet in crossflow （JICF） were experimentally investigated by means of Phase Doppler Anemometry （PDA） measurement. The two-phase flow experiments were conducted for different flow conditions and solid particle parameters, including the ratio of the jet velocity to crossflow velocity, the particle size and mass loading. The experimental results indicate that the fine particles with the size of 70 micron and the mass loading of 0.05% have a minor influence on the mean and fluctuation velocity fields of the two-phase JICF. However, the fine particle transport by the two-phase JICF is dominantly and preferentially affected by the shear layer vortices and exhibits a somewhat enhanced dispersion as compared to the fluid. For the coarse particles with the particle size ranging from 300 micron to 700 micron and the mass loading less than 0.16%, the effect of the particle parameters on the fluid phase is associated with both the anisotropic properties of the flow field and the trajectory deviation of the settling particles from the fluid. Compared to the single-phase JICF, the two-phase JICF laden with the coarse particles is recognized to possess more pronounced mean velocity alteration and turbulence modulation of the fluid phase in the presence of the particles with the larger particle size and higher mass loading.
Based on particle approach and tidal flow model this article studies the behavior of the oil slick on the water surface in the Huangpu River, a tidal waterway in Shanghai. In order to track the oil slick motion, a two-dimensional oil trajectory model is used. The dynamical properties of spilled oil characterized by advection, oil spreading and turbulent diffusion are considered in the model. The simulation results consistent with the flume experimental data show that the model is applicable. Both simulation and experiment illustrate that the tidal flow has a great influence on the oil slick motion. The calculated results can be used as a reference for the response to oil spill accidents in rivers.
Sediments in many rivers and lakes are subjected to resuspension due to a combination of hydrodynamics. However, the roles of contaminant-contained dissolved and particulate sediments during the resuspension release are rarely studied. This study focuses on the release quantity of contaminants in both water phase and solid phase. Conservative tracer （NaC1） and reactive tracer （Phosphorus） were respectively added to cohesive fine-grained sediments and non-cohesive coarse-grained sediments. A range of typical shear stress was conducted to characterize the time-depended release of contaminants in a laboratory flume. When the sediment started to move, the concentration of contaminant in the overlying water increased with the bed shear stress, but the dissolved contaminants responded faster than the particulate ones. The observed contaminant release process can be divided into three main stages： the initial two hours fast mixing： the release contribution of pore water could reach up to 75%; the middle 4-6 h adsorption： the partitioning coefficient of contaminant between water phase and solid phase decreased over the time, and the adsorption of contaminates from resuspended sediment dominated the negative release; the last equilibrium stage： the desorption and adsorption reached equilibrium, and the reactive contaminant made an impact on the water quality in the solid phase. The existing formulas to evaluate the release flux are far from practice meaning as the sediment contaminants undergo a very complex release process.
