3-D fluid-mud dynamics in the Jiaojiang Estuary, China

A 3-D model has been developed for the muddy Jiaojiang Estuary and adjoining coastal waters, and verified against field observations. To simulate fluid-mud formation, the model uses a fine resolution grid near the bottom and involves coupling processes between hydrodynamics and fluid mud such as the sediment-induced buoyancy, increasing turbulent kinetic energy sink and kinematic viscosity, mixing by internal waves riding on the lutocline, and non-Newtonian properties of fluid mud. The effective hydrodynamic drag was reduced in the presence of fluid mud. It is shown that the estuary is infilled by tidal pumping and that longitudinal and transversal gradients of suspended sediment concentration, salinity, and currents control the formation of mud banks. Thus a 3-D model is necessary to estimate the fate of mud, although the model results are very sensitive to details of the parameterization of the hydrodynamics-mud feedback processes.