How to perform a Sediment

Transport Analysis using HEC-RAS

Part I
Data to perform a sediment transport analysis
Unsteady vs Quasi-Steady flow
Quasi-Steady Flow Computations
• Sequence of steady state computations
• Apply results over specified time to compute sediment transport
• More stable than fully unsteady
• Uses backwater flow equations
• Does not conserve flow or storage
• Faster
• Limited to simple boundary conditions (B.C.) and controls
Flow Series
• Required for each upstream B.C.
• Flow Duration:
• Flow duration/Computation
Increment/Flow
• Handle irregular time steps\
• Time step cannot be larger than the
flow duration.
• Flow duration for different B.C. do not
need to match.
• RAS uses the smallest duration of all.
Computational Increment
• Sediment transport is highly non-linear
• Use 24 hrs for low flows
• Smaller times for moderate of high flows
• Model stability could be compromised with large times
• “Re-computing geometry and hydraulics too infrequently is the most
common source of model instability”
Downstream B.C. (for water)
• Stage Time Series
• Duration vs stage table.
• Reach should be in morphological quasi-equilibrium.
• Rating Curve
• Relation between stage vs flow.
• Assume morphological quasi-equilibrium.
• Normal Depth
• Requires the friction slope.
• Is popular but introduces uncertainty.
• Makes water surface elevation independent of
computed elevation introducing numerical and
unrealistic results.
Downstream B.C. (for water)
 Temperature
• Fall velocity is sensitive to temperature.
• Sediment transport analyses require
temperature data.
• Specify a temperature time series.
• Irregular time series could be specified
• Options:
• Constant temperature: For coarse systems
• Interpolation: Annual highs and lows values
• Use monthly averages
 Sediment Data
• HEC-RAS uses four files for
Quasi-Unsteady
quasi-steady sediment flow data
transport analysis Sediment data
• Hydraulics input
• Geometry
• Flow (quasi-steady or
unsteady)
• Plan Perform a sediment
• Sediment transport transport simulation
• Sediment data file: Is
mandatory after the geometry
file is complete.
 Sediment Transport Data Editor
• Three tabs:
• Initial conditions & transport parameters
(mandatory)
• Sediment B.C. (mandatory)
• USDA-ARL Bank Stability and Toe Erosion Model
(BSTEM) (Optional)
• Initial conditions & transport parameters
• Sediment transport functions
• 8 sediment transport functions
• All produce very different results
• Must be chosen with care and knowledge of river
engineering
HEC-RAS Hydraulic Reference Manual
 Sediment Transport Data Editor
• Initial conditions & transport parameters
• Sorting Method
• To keep track of the bed gradation by classes and to simulate the armoring processes
• Three Sorting Methods
• Thomas (Ex.5) (Default in HEC-6)
• Copeland (Ex. 7) For sand bed rivers mainly
• Active Layer: simple two-layer model. Uses d90 as layer thickness. Only appropriate for
gravel beds.
• Do not combine Thomas/Copeland armoring with Wilcox-Crowe transport function.
Both account for armoring.
 Sediment Transport Data Editor
• Initial conditions & transport parameters
• Sorting Method
• To keep track of the bed gradation by classes and to
simulate the armoring processes
• Three Sorting Methods
• Thomas (Ex.5) (Default in HEC-6)
• Copeland (Ex. 7) For sand bed rivers mainly
• Active Layer: simple two-layer model. Uses d90 as
layer thickness. Only appropriate for gravel beds.
• Do not combine Thomas/Copeland armoring with
Wilcox-Crowe transport function. Both account for
armoring.
Fall velocity
• Five methods for computing fall
velocity
• User should select the most
appropriate
• Ruby
• Toffaleti
• Van Rijn
• Report 12 (HEC-6)
• Solutions are iterative:
Cd(Re) Re(v)
 Maximum Depth or Minimum Elevation
• User must specify
two movable bed
limits and either a
depth or elevation for
bed degradation
(movable sediment
reservoir)
Mobile Cross Section Limits
• Specify movable bed limits stations at the right and left sides
• These are the last nodes to move
• Select then carefully. Used in some transport functions
• Not always correspond to channel bank stations
Multiple Movable Bed Limits
• “Veneer method” is a
method of computing bed
change, raising or lowering
all wetted nodes within the
movable bed limits an equal
distance to convert mass
change into cross section
changes.
 Multiple Movable Bed Limits (MMBL)
• The MMBL feature allows to
select several “active
channels” that can erode,
producing “islands” in the
river.
• This is mostly for flow splits
or modeling of river deltas.
 Bed Gradations
• Each cross-section requires initial bed
gradation data
• User define sediment gradations in a
database
• HEC-RAS uses bed-gradation templates
• Requires:
• % Finer
• Uses a cumulative bed gradation curve with
%finer defined by the upper bound of each
grain size.
• 50% must be input as 50
• Grain class fraction/weight
• This is the sample fraction of each grain
class (example: fine sand, coarse sand, fine
gravel, etc).
 Bed Gradations
• Requires:
• Selecting a template
• This is a way to associate a bed sample
with one or several cross-sections
• Bed gradations can be interpolated
between cross sections
• HEC-RAS has specific menu for
cohesive soil parameters