High-Velocity Erosion of Sand

Abstract

Dredging is the relocation of soil. Before the soil can be transported, it has to be loosened. This can be done hydraulically (jetting) or mechanically (cutting). Often, water jets are used to erode the soil layer. Over time, pickup functions have been derived to predict the amount of erosion corresponding to the flow conditions. However, existing pickup functions are inaccurate at high flow velocities. During the current study, erosion experiments have been done at high flow velocities (up to 4.7 m/s) corresponding to a bed shear stress of up to 60 Pa and a Shields parameter (θ) of up to 30. The results of these experiments were compared with a number of well-known data sets and pickup functions.