• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.122-130
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• 2013

To examine floc characteristics of cohesive bed sediment of the Yeongsan River estuary, a floc camera system has been developed and utilized to observe flocs under varying conditions. In order to validate the floc camera system, sand particles were passed through 88-125 and $63-88{\mu}m$ sieves and observed within the laboratory. Mean grain size and settling velocities were found to be 102 and $56.2{\mu}m$ and 6.7 and 5.9 mm/s, respectively. Artifacts of particles estimated outside of the sieve range are attributed to being imaged out of the depth of focus. However, as mean grain size and settling velocity of each size class were within the confidence interval, the floc camera system was confidently used to examine cohesive bed sediments of Yeongsan River estuary. The bed sediment sample was prepared with a concentration of 0.1 g/L in 0 psu deionized water. The mean grain size, settling velocity and fractal dimension of flocs were $40.6{\pm}0.66{\mu}m$, 14 mm/s, and 2.86, respectively. Experiments were also conducted using different salinities (10 and 34 psu) and sediment concentrations (0.1 and 0.3 g/L). Despite changing these parameters, the mean observed grain size and settling velocities were found to be the same within the error range of the system. The relatively higher values of settling velocity and fractal dimension are considered a result of the sediment containing relatively small concentrations of organic matter. Moreover, consistent floc size over various grain sizes and concentrations may be the result of insufficient turbulence to aggregate flocs.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.58-65
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• 2011

This study aims to investigate the settling velocity of aggregates of cohesive sediment (floc) and its relationship with sediment size, density and fractal dimension. A system of commercial camera and macro-lens is used for the experiment. Through the image-analysis technique, the image taken by the camera system is analyzed. For the experiment, kaolinite and a natural sediment sampled at Lake Apopka in Florida have been tested. From this study, it is known that kaolinite and Lake Apopka sediments show different behaviors mainly depending on the organic matter content. Samples of kaolinite with less organic contents show a more definite trend to follow a fractal theory and relatively strong relationships between the settling velocity, density, fractal dimension and floc size compared to the Lake Apopka sediments rich in organics.