International Research Journal of Innovations in Engineering and Technology - IRJIET International Open Access, Monthly, Peer Reviewed, Reputed Journal ISSN (online): 2581-3048

Impact Factor (2025): 6.9

DOI Prefix: 10.47001/IRJIET

Effect of Coastal Dynamics on Interstitial Hydraulics in Beach Sediments

Abstract

Results from the field experiments to investigate plume movement and solute transport caused by strong semidiurnal-tides in beach sand are presented. Field observations of the evolved solute plumes reveal a uniquely conical shape. The vertical and horizontal cross-sections of the contaminated areas were measured in the field. The digital images were processed for spatial dimensions and the colour intensity records were converted to concentration using calibration techniques. Solute transport described by the plumes along the vertical cross-sections of the vadose-zone was found to be non-Gaussian, differing from that in the horizontal cross-sections. Fully developed two-dimensional (2D) plumes are used to account for the contaminant movement and transport in the sediments. We describe the influence of effective radial dispersion coefficient using moment’s analysis, which can be applied to the advective-dispersion-equation (ADE) in cylindrical coordinates. A Gaussian model was also applied to individual plumes to determine the longitudinal (vertical), transverse (horizontal) flow cross-sections and concentration dataset. The effective radial hydrodynamic dispersion coefficients varied from 6.141x10-06m2/hr to 4.16148x10-05m2/hr within the mean radial distance of about 0.25m and 3.475x10-3m/hr in pore-fluid flow. The quantitative results from the calibration and analytic processes will be useful benchmark for prediction, validation and sensitivity studies, such as involving solute dispersion arising from spatial fluctuations of the velocity field due to tidal changes affecting the morphology of the River Mersey Estuary (RME). 

Country : Nigeria

1 Okuroghoboye Diepreye Itugha

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Federal University Otuoke, 400 University Boulevard, Otuoke, PMB 126, Bayelsa State, Nigeria

IRJIET, Volume 9, Issue 11, November 2025 pp. 99-116

doi.org/10.47001/IRJIET/2025.911013

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