• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.6B
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• pp.623-631
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• 2006

A new model, the periodic transient storage zone model, is developed to describe solute transport mixing in natural streams and rivers with various bottom boundaries. To assess the effects of storage zones structure on transient storage exchange, we analyze data from salt and dye injection experiments in a recirculating laboratory flume with four spatially periodic pool-riffle sequences characteristic of natural river systems under low flow conditions. Dye injections show that solute transport mixing controlled by surface shapes of both the bed and the side in channels. As no existing transient storage model could represent these effects, we developed a new axially periodic transient storage zone model that better represent the effects of channel characteristics in natural river systems. The new model is also fitted to data from salt tracer injection experiments in four reaches of the upper Sabin River, Texas, USA. The proposed model is in good agreement with the field experimental data.