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The navigation in ports and waterways must be safeguarded by maintenance dredging, i.e. removing of deposited sediments. As maintenance dredging and relocation of these deposits can be highly expensive, port authorities seek for tailor-made solutions to reduce the costs and at the same time guarantee safe navigation.
We will consider several options for reducing dredging costs: SHORT-TERM: dredge more efficiently & reduce sediment return flow LONG-TERM: modify intervention protocol Water injection dredging (WID) is an example of a technique to reduce dredging costs on the short term. However, to avoid additional siltation in the vicinity and/or strong return flows, WID should be applied in combination with a favorable bed slope, ebb currents or/and a sediment trap, from which sediment can be dredged more efficiently. The project will be linked to SURICATES, which is aiming to optimize locations and conditions at which sediment is released. Revising the criterium for nautical bottom is an example of modification of intervention protocols. Instead of removing sediment, its presence is accepted as vessels may navigate through fluid mud layers. Local sediment conditioning of mud by WID may be required for sailing through it. Also, good insight into the thickness, extent and rheological properties of the fluid The goal of the project is to deliver the multidisciplinary knowledge, which are necessary to successfully employ, quantitatively assess and generically improve the current maintenance strategies at the PoR. In particular, the results of the project can be further used for optimizing and testing novel water injection dredging scenarios at the PoR. The project is aiming to deliver the following: - Generated system knowledge: spatial and temporal variability of sediment at PoR - Improved current (flow) model - Validated sediment model on fluid mud dynamics - WID actions model - Proven working background of measuring devices: the Graviprobe, the Rheotune The developed models can be applied for optimizing the dredging maintenance, inventory of effects of changes in infrastructure and management of dredging maintenance, estimation of transport paths and final use of dredged sediment, occurrence and thickness of fluid mud layers in the waterways and for research on mud transport. These applications are in line with related projects, such as CoVadem (DEL081) and SURICATES. |
Visuals
The Port of Rotterdam has released a new video demonstrating the ongoing collaboration between the port, MARIN, TU Delft and Deltares |
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