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Department of Geography

River Dynamics Lab

as  

 

 

 

 

 

General Interests
Current Research Projects  
Selected Publications
Courses
Animations
Laboratory


New!
<>sedinmotion
New DVD of high-speed videos of sediment transport,
and more.  The DVD contains high-resolution versions
of the animations below as well as many newer
simulations and experiments. I will send you a free
copy if you will use it for educational purposes. Send
me an email with your address.

schmeeckle


river_small
Mark Schmeeckle
Ph.D. University of Colorado, Boulder, 1998
Office: SCOB 243
Phone: (480) 727-8199
Fax: (480) 965-8313
schmeeckle@asu.edu


 

General Interests
My research interest is in landscape mechanics with a primary focus on fluvial geomorphology, sediment transport, and surface water processes.

Current Research Projects

  • Interaction of suspended sediment with turbulence structures in rivers. I am trying to understand how turbulence entrains and disentrains suspended sediment grains from a river bed when there is simultaneous bedload transport. High-speed video in laboratory flumes and discrete particle models are being used to understand this process. Large eddy simulations(LES) of turbulence in natural channels (with Yasuyuki Shimizu, Hokkaido University, Japan and Ryosuke Akahori, ASU) along with field and laboratory experiments are being employed to find out how larger-scale turbulent motions redistribute suspended sediment across river channels. A key issue is to understand how vegetation affects lateral turbulent structures, especially during overbank flows.
  • Incision of the Grand Canyon and similar drainage anomalies (with John Douglass and Ronald Dorn, ASU). We are conducting experiments in a 9 by 2 meter stream table with a sediment depth of 60 centimeters. Using a flexible membrane the central portion of the sediment bed can be uplift to simulate drainage anomaly growth by antecedence. We are also simulating  the cutting of transverse drainages by stream piracy and lake overflow.
  • Flow , sediment transport, and morphodymanics of semi-arid first order streams (with Mary Nichols, USDA ARS, Tucson and Brendan Yuill, ASU). We are modeling and measuring flow and sediment transport in first order channels in the Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed at Tombstone, Arizona. We are analyzing flow and sediment data that has been collected in the streams over the last fifty years. Our goal is to understand the response of first order semi-arid streams to the varying frequency and magnitude of summer monsoonal storm flow events, so that we can physically explain channel incision that has taken place in response to climatic and vegetation changes.
  • Sediment Transport Mechanics in Steep Mountain Streams (with Elowyn Yager and Bill Dietrich UC Berkeley). Gravel is transported through large immobile boulders in many steep mountain streams. Current gravel sediment transport theory was not formulated to account for the effects of the fixed boulders. We are conducting PIV and quantitative high-speed visualization experiments of bedload transport through large fixed roughness elements (immobile spheres) in the River Dynamics Lab at ASU to help answer this problem.
  • Suspended Sediment Transport through Bouldery Beds (with Peter Wilcock and Paul Grams, Johns Hopkins) Current suspended sediment transport relations were not formulated to work over river beds that have large immobile boulders, such as the Colorado River. We are conducting laboratory experiments that visualize how suspended sediment is entrained and disentrained by near-bed turbulence structures around large immobile roughness elements.
  • Turbulence structure and  bedload transport in rivers (with Jon Nelson, USGS and Ron Shreve, Washington/UCLA). We use high-speed, particle-imaging velocimetry (PIV) and a novel high-frequency two-dimensional force transducer to understand the coupling between turbulence and the forces on grains in rivers. In one set of experiments we are measuring the forces on natural grains with the goal of being able to explain how grains become aligned (imbricated) with respect to the flow.
  • Turbulence, dynamics, and  sediment transport over wave-generated sea-bed ripples. (with Joe Fernando and Sergey Voropayev in ASU's Environmental Fluid Dynamics Program.)
  • Rainsplash transport and the evolution of hillslopes (with David Furbish,Vanderbilt and Yousuff Hussaini, FSU) we are using high-speed videography to track the paths of individual grains following a raindrop impact. Our aim is to formulate physically accurate models of rainsplash transport on hillslopes that can then be used in models of landscape evolution.
  • Growth and evolution of fine-grained bars in the Grand Canyon (with David Topping and Ted Melis, USGS and Ryosuke Akahori, ASU). Closing of Glen Canyon Dam has reduced the sediment sizes available to build eddy sand bars. It may be possible to rebuild these degrading beaches with finer grain sizes that are cohesive. We are currently conducting laboratory flume experiments on fine-grained samples collected from Grand Canyon to determine the sediment transport properties that these replenished beaches would have.
  • Growth and migration of bars in rivers affected by fluctuations in discharge (with Phil Hall, Imperial College, London and David Furbish, Vanderbilt). Recent advanced mathematical techniques formulated to understand the transition to turbulence in aerodynamics are being brought to bear on the problem of river bar instability. These analytic theories will be tested with numerical and laboratory simulations.

Selected Publications

  • Mango, A.J., M.W. Schmeeckle,and D.J. Furbish. 2004. Tidally-induced groundwater circulation in an unconfined coastal aquifer modeled with a Hele-Shaw cell. Geology. Vol 32(3). p233-236.
  • Schmeeckle, M.W. and J.M. Nelson. 2003. Direct numerical simulation of bedload transport using a local, dynamic boundary condition. Sedimentology. Vol 50, p. 279-301 
  • Schmeeckle, M.W., J.M. Nelson, J. Pitlick and J.P. Bennett. 2001. Interparticle collision of natural sediment grains in water. Water Resources Research , Vol. 37(9).p 2377-2392.
  • Nelson, J.M., M.W. Schmeeckle, and R.L. Shreve., 2001., Turbulence and Particle Entrainment. In M.P. Mosley Editor: Gravel Bed Rivers V. Water Resources Publications, LLC. p. 221-248.
  • Schmeeckle, M.W. A dynamic boundary condition for bedload sediment transport in non-uniform, hydraulically rough turbulent boundary layers. Annual Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, Japan Society of Civil Engineers. p653-658, February, 1999
  • Nelson, J.M., Schmeeckle, M.W., Shreve, R.L., and McLean, S.R., 2001, Sediment Entrainment and Transport in Complex Flows, in Seminara, G., and Blondeaux, P., eds., River, Coastal and Estuarine Morphodynamics: Heidelberg, Springer-Verlag, p. 1-26. 
  • Shimizu, Y., Schmeeckle, M.W., and Nelson, J.M., 2000, Three-dimensional calculation of flow over two-dimensional dunes: Japan Society of Civil Engineers Annual Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, v. 43, p. 623-628.
  • Schmeeckle, M.W., Y. Shimizu, K. Hoshi, H. Baba, and S. Ikezaki. Turbulent structures and suspended sediment over two-dimensional dunes. In River Coastal and Estuarine Morphodynamics, IAHR Symposium, Genova, Italy, p261-270, September, 1999. 
  • Y. Shimizu, M.W. Schmeeckle, K. Hoshi, and K. Tateya. Numerical simulation of turbulence over two-dimensional dunes. In River Coastal and Estuarine Morphodynamics, IAHR Symposium, Genova, Italy, p251-260, September, 1999. 

Courses
GPH 511 - Fluvial Processes-syllabus

GPH 411- Physical Geography-syllabus


Animations
 

drop

suspbound.gif

Rainsplash Experiments (245Kb)

 Suspended Sediment Boundary Condition(553Kb)

piv

PIV Force Experiments (667)

Bedload Simulation (881Kb)

rivcon

susp

 Suspended sediment and Lateral Structures (652Kb)

Suspended Sediment Over 2D Dune (927Kb)