A model of floc strength under hydrodynamic forces

✍ Scribed by D. Tomi; D.F. Bagster

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1975
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 815 KB
• Volume: 30
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0009-2509
• DOI: 10.1016/0009-2509(75)80077-7

✦ Synopsis

The strength of an idealised model of a floe has been examined with a view to calculating the effect of hydrodynamic forces on floe stability. Various spatial arrangements of spherical primary particles were considered joined by elastic polymer links, in accordance with the accepted bridging mechanism of flocculation. An available structural frame analysis computer program was used to find the forces in the links as the floes were considered stressed by simple shear i&Ids. For a given shape of floe a dependence of maximum stable size on the shear gradient was established. There is general agreement with published experimental findings of the variation of the maximum size of an aggregate for a-given shear gradient.