ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Deep-Sea Environments and Ecology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1656243
Effects of bed composition on turbidity flow dynamics in relation to flocculation
Provisionally accepted
- 1Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands
- 2Technische Universiteit Delft, Delft, Netherlands
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This study investigated the impact of various types of bed composition on turbidity current propagation in relation to flocculation. A lock exchange setup was used, comprising a mixing section and an outflow compartment. The bed types investigated were a quartz bed, a quartz bed topped with (unflocculated) illite clay, and a quartz bed with flocculated illite. The findings confirmed that the presence of a bed influenced the turbidity current propagation. In particular, it was found that the front velocity was strongly reduced when the bed was composed of freshly made flocs compared to the case where the bed was made of quartz alone, which does not form flocs. While propagating, either illite clay or flocs were picked up and aggregated into larger flocs. These larger flocs were then deposited further downstream during propagation. Moreover, the front velocity was higher over a quartz bed when no flocculant was added to the outflow compartment water than when flocculant was present. This confirms that flocculation occurs in the water column during propagation.
Keywords: Flocculation, Lock-exchange, Turbidity currents, Bed composition, Front velocity
Received: 29 Jun 2025; Accepted: 13 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wahab, Chassagne and Helmons. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Shaheen Akhtar Wahab, s.a.wahab-1@tudelft.nl
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