Experimental investigation of negatively buoyant sediment plumes resulting from dredging operations

In a first step to investigate the behaviour of sediment plumes released from dredging vessels, an experimental facility has been built to release scaled fine sediment plumes in the presence of cross flow. High-frequency measurements of velocity components and sediment concentration are obtained using acoustic and optical backscatter instruments. The paths of the axis of the experimental buoyant plumes in cross-flow have been compared to integral laws by Fisher et al. (1979), showing relatively good agreement for plumes not influenced by the dredger’s hull. Plumes with low relative density difference and high crossflow to outflow velocity ratio deviate from the integral laws due to additional mixing induced by the hull boundary layer and wake