Search results for "meander"

Stream restorations with meanders increase dragonfly and damselfly diversity and abundance, including an endangered species.

2021

10 pages; International audience; This study presents examples of successful restoration projects for biodiversity conservation. In West France, the Pinail National Nature Reserve is a protected wetland interspersed with more than 6000 ponds. This wetland is inhabited by 50 species of Odonata and thus is a key biodiversity area for damselflies and dragonflies conservation. In the past, when the limestone was exploited, the streams of the plateau were artificially channeled rectilinearly, running to the Vienne River. Eventually streams were blocked by biomass and sediments resulting in water flowing mainly underground. In 2011, two restoration projects dug and recreated lost habitats such as…

Numerical simulation of experiments in a meandering flume

2001

Numerical modelling of the flow in a meandering channel is compared with experiments done by one of the authors. A peculiar 2DH model, where bottom shear stresses are computed taking into account also accelerations, has been developed for the comparison. Good results are obtained in some sections of the channel, but, in others, some experimentally observed flow features are not well reproduced. An explanation is offered for the difficulties encountered in modelling the strong secondary current that appears along the bend.

Experimental Observations of Flow and Bed Processes in Large-Amplitude Meandering Flume

2009

Meanders of large amplitude often exhibit asymmetric planform shape or subsidiary bends. The present work is aimed at improving on understanding of the morphodynamic phenomena affecting the bed evolution of large amplitude meandering channels. Attention is focused on the development of the steady point bar-pool configuration and of the superimposed large-scale migrating bed forms; of particular interest is the role of the changing channel curvature and bed topography variation on flow pattern. A series of experiments was carried out in a sine-generated large-amplitude meandering flume, for two values of width-to-depth ratio. Maps documenting the bed topography and the flow pattern along the…

Experimental observations of upstream overdeepening

2005

The issue of morphodynamic influence in meandering streams is investigated through a series of laboratory experiments on curved and straight flumes. Both qualitative and quantitative observations confirm the suitability of the recent theoretical developments (Zolezzi & Seminara 2001) that indicate the occurrence of two distinct regimes of morphodynamic influence, depending on the value of the width ratio of the channel β. The threshold value βR separating the upstream from the downstream influence regimes coincides with the resonant value discovered by Blondeaux & Seminara (1985). Indeed it is observed that upstream influence may occur only in relatively wide channels, while narrower stream…

The effect of geometrical parameters on the discharge capacity of meandering compound channels

2008

A number of methods and formulae has been proposed in the literature to estimate the discharge capacity of compound channels. When the main channel has a meandering pattern, a reduction in the conveyance capacity for a given stage is observed, which is due to the energy dissipations caused by the development of strong secondary currents and to the decrease of the main channel bed slope with respect to the valley bed slope. The discharges in meandering compound channels are usually assessed applying, with some adjustments, the same methods used in the straight compound channels. Specifically, the sinuosity of the main channel is frequently introduced to account for its meandering pattern, al…

ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECT OF SINUOSITY IN THE DISCHARGE CAPACITY OF MEANDERING COMPOUND CHANNELS

2007

Flow in meandering bends

2004

Bed Topography Reconstruction in a Large Amplitude Meandering Flume: Application of Close Range Photogrammetry

2014

Natural rivers are characterized by continuous variations in bed topography, especially along curved reaches. High resolution topographic data are necessary to analyze the mutual interactions between the downstream flow and the cross-stream flow, which determine the distribution of the bed-shear stress along the channel. Because of the difficulty in acquiring good and accurate data in rivers, the major part of studies have been conducted in laboratory flumes. This paper reports on a laboratory study in which the automatic digital photogrammetric survey was applied to derive the high-resolution Digital Surface Model (DSM) of the bed topography in a large amplitude meandering flume. In order …

Experimental observations of Flow and Bed processes in a Large-amplitude Meandering Flume

2009

Meanders of large amplitude often exhibit asymmetric planform shape or subsidiary bends. The present work is aimed at improving on understanding of the morphodynamic phenomena affecting the bed evolution of large amplitude meandering channels. Attention is focused on the development of the steady point bar-pool configuration and of the superimposed large-scale migrating bed forms; of particular interest is the role of the changing channel curvature and bed topography variation on flow pattern. A series of experiments was carried out in a sine-generated large-amplitude meandering flume, for two values of width-to-depth ratio. Maps documenting the bed topography and the flow pattern along the…

Analyzing turbulence in gravel bed channels

2005

In this paper, the results of an experimental investigation of the turbulence intensity in gravel bed channels are described. The runs were carried out by measuring, with an acoustic Doppler velocimeter, the turbulence intensity profile along six verticals of a given cross section in a laboratory flume. The analysis of the measured intensity distributions has shown the existence of two different regions, above and below the tops of the roughness elements, in which different intensity profiles occur. Furthermore, the measured profiles have shown a maximum of the turbulence intensity that decreases for increasing values of the roughness height, confirming that the turbulence damping efficienc…