Decoding meandering river bends
A fundamental aspect of rivers is that they rarely flow in straight lines, and instead meander through river bends of different shapes. For example, some bends are symmetric like bell curves, while other bends skew to one side like bananas. These shapes are widely used in both theory and practice but are usually based on subjective interpretation, which complicates efforts to predict how rivers will respond in a changing environment. We are excited to begin a new, 5-year project to adapt advanced computing methods to decode the shapes of meandering rivers. Alongside this research, we are partnering with Dr. Matthew Burtner (UVA Dept. of Music) and and Dr. Jennifer Chiu (UVA School of Education and Human Development) to translate the geometry of rivers to music. In the coming years we will share this fusion of art and science with the local community in Charlottesville, VA and nationally through teaching materials for geoscience educators. For more on this work see this writeup in UVA Today.
This work is supported by a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award through the Geomorphology and Land-use Dynamics Program.
From turbulent flow to landscape dynamics
Setting up for physical experiments at the University of Minnesota in June 2019.
Through the interaction of turbulent flow, sediment transport, and topography, rivers evolve over an enormous range of time and space scales, from turbulent flow fluctuations over seconds to floodplain evolution over decades and beyond. In general, predictions over geologic timeframes cannot account for turbulent flow and its impact on channel morphodynamics, which currently limits forecasting for river impacts on ecology, sedimentary structure, and infrastructure.
In this recent project, we leveraged recent advances in computational fluid dynamics modeling, together with physical experiments and comparison to geologic datasets, to generate and test new predictions for river behavior over decades. This interdisciplinary collaboration included UVA PhD student Yuan Li and colleagues at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Stony Brook University and Salish Kootenai College.
This work was supported through the National Science Foundation Geomorphology and Land-use Dynamics Program and Hydrology Program.
Related papers:
- Li, Y., and Limaye, A. B., in review, Timescale of the morphodynamic feedback between planform geometry and lateral migration of meandering rivers.
- Khosronejad, A., Limaye, A. B., Zhang, Z., Kang, S., Yang, X., and Sotiropoulos, F., 2023, On the morphodynamics of a wide class of large-scale meandering rivers: Insights gained by coupling LES with sediment-dynamics, Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems 15(3), doi:10.1029/2022MS003257.
- Li, Y., and Limaye, A. B., 2022, Testing predictions for migration of meandering rivers: Fit for a curvature-based model depends on streamwise location and timescale, Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, doi:10.1029/2022JF006776.
- Kozarek, J.L., Limaye, A. B., and Arpin, E., 2023, Linking turbulent flow and bank erosion with controlled experiments in a field-scale meandering channel, Geological Society of London Special Publication 540(1), doi:10.1144/SP540-2023-17.
- Zhang, X., Flora, K., Kang, S., Limaye, A. B., and Khosronejad, A., 2022, Data-driven prediction of turbulent flow statistics past bridge piers in large-scale rivers using convolutional neural networks, Water Resources Research 58, doi:10.1029/2021WR030163.
- Zhang, X., Limaye, A. B., and Khosronejad, A., 2022, Three-dimensional realizations of flood flow in large-scale rivers using the neural fuzzy-based machine-learning algorithm, Computers and Fluids 246, doi:10.1016/j.compfluid.2022.105611.
- Limaye, A. B., Lazarus, E. D., Li, Y., and Schwenk, J., 2021, River sinuosity describes a continuum between randomness and ordered growth, Geology 49 (12), 1506–1510, doi:10.1130/G49153.1.