A mass-conservation-based approach to predicting river mouth channel bifurcations

Abstract:

Channel bifurcation is an important process in fluvio-deltaic morphodynamics and resulting stratigraphic architecture of prograding river deltas. We develop and test a new theory for the formation of channel bifurcations based on fluid mass conservation and system-averaged transport conditions rather than local hydrodynamics. We built 29 experimental deltas under a variety of boundary conditions to examine the inception and growth of bars and channel bifurcations. From the initial condition of water and sediment entering a still basin of uniform depth as a wall-bounded turbulent jet, delta growth begins with the formation of a lunate bar as predicted by the hydrodynamics of jet spreading. However, the lunate bar diverts water and sediment laterally causing the bar to widen into a radially symmetric sediment “apron” extending uniformly from the channel axis to the flume walls. This apron is stable to perturbations, and its distal limit progrades basinward while maintaining a roughly constant flow depth of ~10 times the median grain diameter (H=2-3 mm). Bar formation and channel bifurcation occur on top of the apron at the distance where shear stress applied by radially-averaged flow velocity falls below the threshold of sediment motion. Our model predicts that the distance to the first channel bifurcation should scale with water discharge, scale inversely with flow depth over the apron, and scale with median grain diameter to the negative one half.