Abstract
Maintenance and new work dredging of existing waterways and navigational channels is vital to the Nation's economy. Cutterhead dredges share the major burden of dredging in the United States. The sediments in the waterways have become polluted over the years and this has become a matter of concern. A substantial increase in the turbidity has been observed in the vicinity of cutterhead dredges. An urgent need, therefore, exists to study the complex nature of flow around a cutterhead and investigate the various factors that contribute to the turbidity generation, the resulting environmental problems and means to reduce the turbidity. Hydraulic model studies provide an ideal tool to study the flow around a cutterhead. Systematic studies carried out in the past decade on cutterhead design were mainly related to the establishment of a similitude criteria for flow at the suction intake of a cutterhead, sediment pick-up behavior at the intake of a suction pipe, and the cutting ability of cutterheads of different shapes. No studies on turbidity generation have been carried out. Slotta found Reynolds' criterion to control model similitude criteria for dredge suction inlets, whereas, Gladigau developed a pseudo-Reynolds'-Froude type relation. The above-mentioned studies were extended in the present investigations to include studies on flow field and sediment pick-up at the cutterhead intake. The flow field studies provide a means to predict velocity field at the cutterhead intake. The sediment pick-up phenomenon was found to follow the Reynolds' type similitude relationship. The study on turbidity generation at the cutterhead made it possible to identify various parameters related to the turbidity generation mechanism at the cutterhead. The study also suggested means to reduce the turbidity in the vicinity of the cutter.
Brahme, Shashikant Bhalchandr (1983). Environmental aspects of suction cutterheads. Texas A&M University. Texas A&M University. Libraries. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /DISSERTATIONS -589549.