Informal Monograph on Riverine Sand Dunes

Kennedy, J.F.; Odgaard, A.J.

Informal Monograph on Riverine Sand Dunes

Title

Informal Monograph on Riverine Sand Dunes

Author

Kennedy, J.F.
Odgaard, A.J.

Corporate name

TU Delft

Date

1991-10-01

Abstract

This report presents an investigation of riverine sand dunes and includes an extensive literature review on the subject. It was concluded that the principal mechanisms responsible for river bed instability, which results in the production of ripples, dunes, etc., are fairly well understood. However, several of the key constituent processes are not well formulated. Principal among these are the phase shifts that occur between the local sediment discharge, the local near-bed velocity, local bed-profile displacement, and local bed shear stress. The reasons for the current deficiencies in the theoretical models are discussed and are concluded to stem from the difficulties inherent to analysis of nonuniform, turbulent, boundary-layer-type flows. Several existing theories for prediction of dune height were verified. None of the five published predictors evaluated was found to be satisfactory. A new, "inverse" model for prediction of dune height was developed.

Subject

sand dunes
river bed instability
dune height prediction
literature review

Classification

TPN100300
TPG1900

To reference this document use:

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:3aee8600-891b-491e-a778-314fb4465b35

Publisher

USACE

Source

The University of Iowa

Part of collection

Hydraulic Engineering Reports