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Much is known about the behaviour of the individual sediment fractions, but the knowledge and understanding of sand-mud interaction remains limited, as do the available tools and models to accurately predict the bed evolution and sediment transport rates in sand-mud areas. Existing models, like the ones by Van Ledden (2003), Soulsby & Clarke (2005) or Van Rijn (2007) have only limitedly been verified with observations due to a lack of good quality observational data. Also, none of the available approaches cover the complete spectrum of sand-mud interaction, which includes settling, erosion processes, waves and currents, and the bed shear stress. Therefore, in practice, sand- and mud fractions are often treated separately. This decoupled approach limits the predictive capacity of numerical models, and therefore the impact of human intervention such as deepening of channels and port construction on maintenance dredging volumes and other morphological changes.
n In the MUSA-research project, a consortium of contractors, consultants and research organizations join joins forces to increase the understanding of the dynamics of sand-mud mixtures through flume tests and field measurements. The developed knowledge, insights and data will be incorporated in engineering tools and in numerical modelling software. The three-year project consists of the following activities:
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