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Characterising natural bedform morphology and its influence on flow

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Abstract

Bedforms such as dunes and ripples are ubiquitous in rivers and coastal seas, and commonly described as triangular shapes from which height and length are calculated to estimate hydrodynamic and sediment dynamic parameters. Natural bedforms, however, present a far more complicated morphology; the difference between natural bedform shape and the often assumed triangular shape is usually neglected, and how this may affect the flow is unknown. This study investigates the shapes of natural bedforms and how they influence flow and shear stress, based on four datasets extracted from earlier studies on two rivers (the Rio Paraná in Argentina, and the Lower Rhine in The Netherlands). The most commonly occurring morphological elements are a sinusoidal stoss side made of one segment and a lee side made of two segments, a gently sloping upper lee side and a relatively steep (6 to 21°) slip face. A non-hydrostatic numerical model, set up using Delft3D, served to simulate the flow over fixed bedforms with various morphologies derived from the identified morphological elements. Both shear stress and turbulence increase with increasing slip face angle and are only marginally affected by the dimensions and positions of the upper and lower lee side. The average slip face angle determined from the bed profiles is 14°, over which there is no permanent flow separation. Shear stress and turbulence above natural bedforms are higher than above a flat bed but much lower than over the often assumed 30° lee side angle.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded through the DFG Research Center/Cluster of Excellence “The Ocean in the Earth System”. Alice Lefebvre is appreciative of the support provided by GLOMAR – Bremen International Graduate School for Marine Sciences. The authors wish to thank Roy M. Frings and Daniel R. Parsons for providing the multibeam echosounder data used in the analysis. Eva Kwoll is also thanked for giving helpful suggestions on the structure of the discussion. Three reviewers are acknowledged for comments on an earlier version of the article, as well as the journal editors for other suggestions. Data are available through the Publishing Network for Geoscientific & Environmental Data (PANGAEA, http://www.pangaea.de).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, Leobener Str., 28359, Bremen, Germany

    Alice Lefebvre & Christian Winter

  2. HKV Consultants, P.O. Box 2120, 8203 AC, Lelystad, The Netherlands

    Andries J. Paarlberg

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  1. Alice Lefebvre
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  2. Andries J. Paarlberg
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Correspondence to Alice Lefebvre.

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Lefebvre, A., Paarlberg, A.J. & Winter, C. Characterising natural bedform morphology and its influence on flow. Geo-Mar Lett 36, 379–393 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00367-016-0455-5

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