The International Association of Dredging Companies (IADC) has just released a very interesting article named 1DH Model Predicts Transport and Sedimentation Inside a Hopper.
Trailing suction hopper dredgers (TSHDs) are commonly used in the dredging industry at a wide variety of maintenance, land reclamation and maritime construction projects.
During trailing suction dredging the TSHD trails dragheads over the seabed to excavate it. The loosened bed materials like sand, clay or gravel together with surrounding water are hydraulically sucked up by pumps through the trailing suction pipes. This mixture is subsequently discharged into the ship’s cargo hold called hopper.
There the suspended sediment disperses and settles throughout the hopper to form a sediment bed layer at the bottom.
Simulation of the sedimentation processes in hoppers is of great interest to provide predictions of how efficiently the incoming sediment is retained in the hopper, stated the article.
A prediction model developed by Van Oord engineers is introduced to accurately and easily predict the overflow of sediments.