Título

Erosion characteristics and floc strenght of Athabasca river cohesive sediments: towards managing sediment-related issues

Autor

JUAN ANTONIO GARCIA ARAGON

Ian Droppo

Bommanna Krishnappan

Brian Trapp

Christina Jaskot

Nivel de Acceso

Acceso Abierto

Resumen o descripción

Purpose: Most of Canada’s tar sands exploitations are located in the Athabasca river basin. Deposited cohesive sediments in Athabasca river and tributaries are a potential source of PAHs in the basin. Erosional behavior of cohesive sediments depends not only of fluid turbulence but on sediments structure and particularly the influence of organic content. This research tries to describe this behavior in Athabasca river sediments. Methods: An experimental study of cohesive sediments dynamics in one of the tributaries, the Muskeg river, was developed in a rotating annular flume. Variation of the shear stress allowed the determination of erosional strength for beds with different consolidation periods. Particle size measurements were made with a laser diffraction device operated in a continuous flow through mode. Optical analyses of flocs (ESEM and TEM) were performed with samples taken at the end of the experiments. Results: An inverse relationship between suspended sediment concentration (SS) and the consolidation period was found. The differences are related in this research to the increasing organic content of the sediments with consolidation period. The particle size measurements during the experiments showed differences on floc strength that are also related to changing organic content during different consolidation periods. ESEM and TEM observations confirm the structural differences for beds with different consolidation periods. The effects of SFGL on floc structure and in biostabilization of the bed are discussed. Conclusions: It is recommended in this paper that consolidation period should be taken into account for the modeling of erosion of cohesive sediments in the Athabasca river. Relating to transport models of pollutants (PAHs) it is highly recommended to consider flocs organic content, particularly algae, in the resuspension module.

Environment Canada, CONACYT

Editor

Springer

Fecha de publicación

23 de marzo de 2011

Tipo de publicación

Artículo

Fuente

1439-0108

Idioma

Inglés

Relación

vol 11;4

Audiencia

Estudiantes

Investigadores

Repositorio Orígen

REPOSITORIO INSTITUCIONAL DE LA UAEM

Descargas

496

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