Numerical research for contaminant release from un-suspended bottom sediment under different hydrodynamic conditions

Contaminant release from bottom sediments in rivers is one of the main problems to study the environmental hydrodynamics. Contaminant will release into the overlying water column under different hydrodynamic conditions through pore-water in sediment, the release mechanism can be roughly divided into convection diffusion, molecular diffusion and adsorption/desorption. In this article, phosphorus was as a typical contaminant with sorption. Through theoretical analysis of the contaminant release, according to different particle-sized and hydraulic conditions, the mathematics model of contaminant release can be established by the coupled Navier-Stokes equation, Darcy equation, solute transport equation and adsorption/desorption equation. Then that model was verified by flume experiment. Numerical studies show that, under different velocity, the instantaneous concentration of convection diffusion is about 6 times to 50 times larger than that of molecular diffusion during initial stages. The concentration of molecular diffusion is about 1 times to 4 times larger than to that of convection diffusion during late stages. Through analysis, the diffusive boundary layer near the interface can be obtained. In addition, the release will increase with particle size decreasing, and the release will be influenced much more by the size change when the particle size is relatively big under different velocity.     

Experimental investigation on diffusive contaminant release from permeable sediment layer under unidirectional unsteady flow

The interfacial diffusive contaminant（phosphorus） release from permeable sediment layer into overlying water column under a unidirectional unsteady（periodic） flow condition was experimentally measured and analyzed. The experimental results indicate that the gross diffusive contaminant release rate is substantially enhanced as compared to that under a steady flow condition, and this enhancement trend is much more pronounced in an immediate release stage. The interfacial diffusive contaminant release rate tends to increase with the increasing flow velocity, decreasing period and augmenting amplitude for the case of the unsteady flow. The additional interfacial diffusive contaminant release under the unsteady flow condition may be related to the hydrodynamic response of the diffusive boundary layer to the flow unsteadiness of the overlying water, depending upon not only the periodic thickness variation of the diffusive boundary layer immediately above the sediment-water interface modulated by the temporal flow velocity of the overlying water column but also the intensified turbulent mixing between the overlying water and the pore-water within the superficial sediment layer induced by an alternate acceleration/deceleration fluctuation during each period.