This proposal is to apply for supplemental financial support to conduct a research project funded by the National Center for Earth Surface Dynamics (NCED) at the University of Minnesota. NCED is a science and technology center funded by the National Science Foundation. It was founded in August 2002 and is headquartered at the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory at the University of Minnesota (UM). The title of the funded project is Experimental Study of Bed Load Sediment Sorting around Spur Dikes. The total amount awarded by NCED is $30,000, covering the cost of one machinist, one instrument specialist, one junior technician, one graduate student, and the travel. NCED will also provide the experimental flume and all measurement equipment. Because NCED will not provide support for the PI's salary, this proposal requests additional financial support to partially cover the PI's salary. The funded project aims to conduct experimental study on hydrodynamic flow field and bed load sediment sorting around spur dikes at the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory at UM. The goals are to study the fundamental mechanism of bed load transport under the complex turbulent flow field, investigate the effect of turbulent intensity on bed load sediment sorting, and obtain an accurate dataset of flow field, scour hole geometry, and bed material gradation for the verification of sediment transport models. Broad Impacts: The broad scientific impacts are four-fold: 1) This experimental study will provide a dataset for the testing of fractional bed load transport models; 2) The dataset can be used to analyze the impact of turbulent intensity on bed load sorting around spur dikes; 3) The experimental dataset will also be used to verify a two-dimensional sediment transport model developed by the P.I. at the Desert Research Institute (DRI); 4) The experimental dataset will be available to the public through the internet. The project will bridge the collaborations between the state of Nevada, an EPSCoR state, and NCED. The collaborative research themes are 1) mechanisms of nonuniform sediment transport in complex flow fields; 2) application of computational hydrodynamic models in simulating earth surface dynamic processes; and 3) up-scaling numerical models for the long-term simulation of morpho-dynamic processes.
