Sediment Transport Analysis Using HEC-RAS Model
January 9, 2025 - January 10, 2025
Dr. Jennifer Duan, UA, will be teaching a 2-day course on the fundamental principles and practical skills for conducting sediment transport analyses using the HEC-RAS model. The workshop will take place in person at CE 203 on the UA campus and will also be available online via Zoom. It will be conducted in a multimedia classroom at the training facility, where each participant will have access to a computer preloaded with the course materials. A teaching assistant will be available to support students. The cost is $500 (early bird; register by December 14) or $600 (regular).
Background
Sediment transport analysis is essential for predicting river geomorphic processes (sediment deposition, channel incision, and platform evolution). This workshop is designed for water resource engineers, geomorphologists, and policy makers to gain the fundamentals of sediment transport theory and the application of the HEC-RAS model. Participants are expected to learn the basic principles of sediment transport, get hands-on tutoring on how to use the HEC-RAS model for estimating channel changes and local scour at bridges, and evaluating bank stability and toe erosion. They will practice sediment transport simulation using the HEC-RAS 1D quasi-unsteady and unsteady sediment transport model as well as HEC-RAS 2D sediment transport model.
The course is divided into eight sections:
Section 1 Fundamentals of Sediment Transport Theory: incipient motion, bed forms, mobile bed resistance
Section 2 Sediment Load in Rivers: bed load, suspended load, and sediment transport equations
Section 3 Methods of HEC-RAS 1D Sediment Transport Model: Exner equation, total load equations, selective transport, armoring layer, bed material composition
Section 4 Application of HEC-RAS 1D Quasi-Unsteady Sediment Transport Model: sediment data, initial condition, boundary condition, maximum erodible depth, sensitivity analysis
Section 5 Application of HEC-RAS 1D Unsteady Sediment Transport Model: Unsteady flow solver, boundary conditions, internal structure, convergence criteria, comparison to 1D quasi-unsteady flow
Section 6 BSTEM – Bank Stability and Toe Erosion Model: basal erosion, bank failure, bank erosion rate, application of BSTEM model
Section 7 HEC-RAS Hydraulic Design Function: general scour, local scour, abutment scour, bend scour
Section 8 HEC-RAS 2D Sediment Transport Model: Bed material data, hiding function, boundary condition, hydraulic structure, 2D unsteady flow solver, advection. and diffusion
Course Material
Participants are expected to receive a USB that contains the latest HEC-RAS 6.5 software, HEC-RAS user’s and hydraulic reference manuals, example problems, and course material.
Instructor
Dr. Jennifer G. Duan is a professor in the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering and Mechanics at the UA. She is also a licensed Professional Engineer in Arizona and a globally recognized expert in developing two-dimensional hydrodynamic models for simulating unsteady flow and sediment transport in riverine environments. Dr. Duan serves as an associate editor for both the International Journal of Sediment Research and the Journal of Hydrology. She has authored over 70 peer-reviewed journal articles focusing on computational modeling of flow and sediment transport processes. With extensive experience teaching courses in open-channel flow and computational hydraulics, Dr. Duan and her research team have designed example cases for this short course, drawing from real engineering projects across Arizona.