A new formula for predicting movable bed roughness coefficient in the Middle Yangtze River

Computing movable bed roughness plays an important role in the modeling of flood routing and bed deformation, and the magnitude of movable bed roughness is closely associated with complex bedform configurations that change with the sand wave motion. The motion of sand wave is dependent on the incoming flow and sediment conditions and channel boundary. After the operation of the Three Gorges Project, the flow and sediment regime changed remarkably in the Middle Yangtze River (MYR), followed by significant channel adjustments. A dramatic decrease in sediment concentration caused continuous channel degradation and significant variations in cross-sectional profiles of the MYR. These adjustments in the channel boundary influence the motion of sand wave, which can further affect the magnitude of movable bed roughness. A new formula for predicting the movable bed roughness coefficient is developed, which can be expressed by a power function of both Froude number and relative water depth. The proposed formula was first calibrated using 1266 datasets of measurements at five hydrometric stations in the MYR during 2001–2012. A back-calculation process shows that the roughness coefficients calculated by the proposed formula agree well with the observations, with the determination coefficient being equal to 0.88. The proposed formula was further verified using 651 datasets of measurements at these hydrometric stations during 2013–2017. Furthermore, four common roughness formulas selected from the literature were tested for comparison. The results indicate that the calculation accuracy of the proposed formula is significantly higher than that of the previous formulas, and the Manning roughness coefficients predicted by the proposed formula have the errors less than ±30% for 96% of the datasets. Therefore, the new bed roughness predictor proposed in this study can accurately calculate the roughness coefficients straightforwardly without iterative solution and graphical interpolation, and the parameters required in the roughness predictor are easily obtained from the hydrometric observations.

Identifying Factors That Influence Accuracy of Riparian Vegetation Classification and River Channel Delineation Mapped Using 1 m Data

Riparian vegetation delineation includes both the process of delineating the riparian zone and classifying vegetation within that zone. We developed a holistic framework to assess riparian vegetation delineation that includes evaluating channel boundary delineation accuracy using a combination of pixel- and object-based metrics. We also identified how stream order, riparian zone width, riparian land use, and image shadow influenced the accuracy of delineation and classification. We tested the framework by evaluating vegetation vs. non-vegetation riparian zone maps produced by applying random forest classification to aerial photographs with a 1 m pixel size. We assessed accuracy of the riparian vegetation classification and channel boundary delineation for two rivers in the northeastern United States. Overall accuracy for the channel boundary delineation was generally above 80% for both sites, while object-based accuracy revealed that 50% of delineated channel was less than 5 m away from the reference channel. Stream order affected channel boundary delineation accuracy while land use and image shadows influenced riparian vegetation classification accuracy; riparian zone width had little impact on observed accuracy. The holistic approach to quantification of accuracy that considers both channel boundary delineation and vegetation classification developed in this study provides an important tool to inform riparian management.

Modelling differential geomorphic effectiveness in neighbouring upland catchments: implications for sediment and flood risk management in a wetter world

In July 2007 an intense summer storm resulted in significant activation of the sediment system in the Thinhope Burn, UK. Catchment- and reach-scale morphodynamic modelling is used to investigate the geomorphic work undertaken by Thinhope Burn; comparing this with the more subdued responses shown by its neighbours. Total sediment efflux for Thinhope Burn over the 10 yr period 1998-2007 was 18, 801 m3 four times that of the larger Knar Burn catchment and fifty-four times that of the smaller Glendue Burn catchment. For a discharge of 60 m3s-1, equivalent to the July 2007 Thinhope flood, sediment efflux was 575 m3, 76 m3, and 67 m3 for Thinhope, Glendue and Knar Burns respectively. It is clear that Thinhope Burn undertook significantly more geomorphic work compared to its neighbours. Analysis of the population of shear stress for reach-scale simulations on Thinhope Burn highlighted that the final three simulations (flood peaks of 60, 90, 236 m3s-1) all produced very similar distributions, with no marked increase in the modal shear stress (∼250 Nm-2). This possibly suggests that flows >60 m3s-1 are not able to exert significantly greater energy on the channel boundary, indicating that flows in the region of 60 m3s-1 attain ‘peak’ geomorphic work. It is argued that factors such as strength resistance of the key sediment sources (e.g. paleoberms perched on terraces), structural resistance to flood waves imposed by valley form resistance, location sensitivity and transmission resistance, may all offer explanations for increased geomorphic effectiveness compared with its neighbours. With the expectation of greater rainfall totals in the winter and more extreme summer events in upland areas of the UK, it is clear that attention needs to focus upon the implications of this upon the morphological stability of these areas not least to aid future sustainable flood risk management.

Heat Driven Flows in Microsized Nematic Volumes: Computational Studies and Analysis

The nematic fluid pumping mechanism responsible for the heat driven flow in microfluidic nematic channels and capillaries is described in a number of applications. This heat driven flow can be generated either by a laser beam focused inside the nematic microvolume and at the nematic channel boundary, or by inhomogeneous heating of the nematic channel or capillary boundaries. As an example, the scenario of the vortex flow excitation in microsized nematic volume, under the influence of a temperature gradient caused by the heat flux through the bounding surface of the channel, is described. In order to clarify the role of heat flux in the formation of the vortex flow in microsized nematic volume, a number of hydrodynamic regimes based on a nonlinear extension of the Ericksen–Leslie theory, supplemented by thermomechanical correction of the shear stress and Rayleigh dissipation function, as well as taking into account the entropy balance equation, are analyzed. It is shown that the features of the vortex flow are affected not only by the power of the laser radiation, but also by the duration of the energy injection into the microsized nematic channel.

Dissipation of electron-beam-driven plasma wakes

Metre-scale plasma wakefield accelerators have imparted energy gain approaching 10 gigaelectronvolts to single nano-Coulomb electron bunches. To reach useful average currents, however, the enormous energy density that the driver deposits into the wake must be removed efficiently between shots. Yet mechanisms by which wakes dissipate their energy into surrounding plasma remain poorly understood. Here, we report picosecond-time-resolved, grazing-angle optical shadowgraphic measurements and large-scale particle-in-cell simulations of ion channels emerging from broken wakes that electron bunches from the SLAC linac generate in tenuous lithium plasma. Measurements show the channel boundary expands radially at 1 million metres-per-second for over a nanosecond. Simulations show that ions and electrons that the original wake propels outward, carrying 90 percent of its energy, drive this expansion by impact-ionizing surrounding neutral lithium. The results provide a basis for understanding global thermodynamics of multi-GeV plasma accelerators, which underlie their viability for applications demanding high average beam current.

Dynamic Ship Domain Model Based on AIS Data for Inland Waterways

The existing ship domain models are mostly based on the navigation behavior of open water vessels, and they are not practicable to directly apply to inland rivers. Therefore, it is necessary to establish an inland ship safety domain model based on the ship traffic characteristic therein. Based on the AIS data in the Yangtze River, this paper establishes the functional relationship between these data through multiple regression analysis using data such as ship spacing, ship length, ship speed, and heading angle. Based on this, the safety distance between ships of different lengths in different situations and other ships is determined, so as to establish a dynamic ship domain model. At the same time, this paper explores the geographical relationship between ship and channel boundary and incorporates it into the ship domain model. Finally, a quantitative approach for ship collision risk is proposed, and the collision threat degree is calculated according to the relative heading of the ship and the position in the dynamic ship domain model. Two case studies, including crossing and overtaking situations, are performed to validate the proposed model.