09.17.07-09.21.07 : 5th IAHR Symposium on River, Coastal and Estuarine Morphodynamics (RCEM),Twente, Netherlands.

12.10.07-12.14.07 : AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, USA

04.01.08-04.03.08 : Marine Sandwave and River Dune Dynamics III, Leeds, UK.

09.02.08-09.06.08 : XXIII Congreso Latinoamericano de Hidraulica, Cartagena de Indias, Colombia.

09.03.08-09.05.08 : River Flow 2008, Izmir, Turkey

09.08.08-09.12.08 : ICHE-2008: 8th International Conference on Hydro-Science and Engineering, Nagoya, Japan.

08.09.09-08.14.09 : 33rd Congress of IAHR, Vancouver, Canada

Selected journal and conference papers
Abad, J. D., Buscaglia, G. and Garcia, M. H. 2D Stream Hydrodynamic, sediment transport and bed morphology model for engineering applications. In press, Hydrological Processes. 2007. (PDF: 1539 KB)

Abad J. D. and García, M. H. RVR Meander: A toolbox for re-meandering of channelized streams. Computers & Geosciences, 32: 92-101, 2006. (PDF: 1013 KB)

Abad, J. D., Spalletti, P. D., García, M. H., Brea, J. D. Effecto de la construcción del puente Lavalle en la evolución de meandros en el río Bermejo. XXII Congreso Latinoamericano de Hidráulica, Venezuela, 2006.(In spanish) (PDF: 1005 KB)

Book chapters
Odgaard, A. J., Abad, J. D. Chapter 8: River meandering and channel stability. In ASCE Manual of Practice 110: Sedimentation Engineering," edited by M.H. Garcia, to appear in 2007.

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Basic Research overview

[1] Hydrodynamics and Morphodynamics of subaerial channels
Collaborators: Marcelo H. García, Gary Parker, Gustavo C. Buscaglia

Meandering rivers evolve and interact with floodplains constantly. They migrate laterally and downstream by modifying their banks either by fluvial erosion, collapse of the banks or by their combination. During the evolution of meandering rivers, several morphodynamic and hydrodynamic conditions are presented. The detailed study of several of these stages is necessary to understand how rivers migrate, herein this is achieved by experimental and numerical studies. In the past, several experimental studies were performed in symmetric low-sinuosity channels, and few studies were performed by considering high-amplitude and high-curvature meandering channels. The Kinoshita channel allows to study the hydrodynamic and morphodynamics for the case of high-amplitude, periodic and asymmetric planform configuration. Its high-sinuosity would allow to understand morphodynamic conditions prior to cutoff. The facility was design to recirculate water and sediment in both directions so upstream and downstream skewned bends are studied.
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[1] Sepa stations
This study presents the results of a numerical model study iinvestigating possible alternatives for siltation alleviation in the Side-Stream Elevated Pool Aeration (SEPA) Station No. 3, located in Blue Island, Illinois and owned and operated by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRDGC).

[2] Drop shaft modeling
A three-dimensional numerical model of the Telegraph Drop-shaft for the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District's Baumgartner Tunnel System was developed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign using the state-of-the-art computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model.

[2] Sediment transport modeling
Collaborators: Marcelo H. García, Gustavo C. Buscaglia

A 2D depth-averaged hydrodynamic, sediment transport and bed morphology model named STREMR HySeD is presented. The depth-averaged sediment transport equations are derived from the 3D dilute, multiphase, flow equations and are incorporated into the hydrodynamic model STREMR. The hydrodynamic model includes a two-equation turbulence model and a correction for the mean flow due to secondary flows. The suspended sediment load can be subdivided into different size classes using the continuum (two-fluid) approach; however, only one bed sediment size is used herein. On the other hand, the bed-load sediment transport and bed evolution numerical results are compared against bed equilibrium experimental results for the case of a meander bend.

Related journal publications:
Abad, J. D., Buscaglia, G. and Garcia, M. H. 2D Stream Hydrodynamic, sediment transport and bed morphology model for engineering applications. In press, Hydrological Processes. 2007. (PDF: 1539 KB)

Abad, J. D. and García, M. H. Discussion of "Efficient algorithm for Computing Einstein Integrals by Junke Guo and Pierre Y. Julien" (Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, Vol. 130, No. 12, pp. 1198-1201, 2004). Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, ASCE, 132 (3): 332-334, 2006. (PDF: 566 KB)

[3] Flow disturbance
Acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCP’s) are commonly used to measure streamflow and water velocities in rivers and streams. This study presents field, laboratory, and numerical model evidence of errors in ADCP measurements caused by flow disturbance.

Related journal publications:
Muller, D., Abad, J. D., Garcia, C., Gatner, J. W., Garcia, M. H. and Oberg, K. "Errors in Acoustic Doppler Velocity measurements caused by flow disturbance". In press, Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, ASCE. 2007.

[4] Parallel multiple jets

[3] Bank erosion control by BBW
Collaborators: Marcelo H. García, Bruce Rhoads

Streambank erosion is an important management issue, particularly for meandering rivers. Recently, bendway weirs have become popular control measures for bank erosion along small meandering streams in the agricultural Midwest. Although these structures have successfully mitigated bank erosion in some cases, there is evidence that the weirs do not always perform as anticipated. The present study represents a first step toward an integrated geomorphological and engineering evaluation of the performance of bendway weirs in rivers. To accomplish this initial phase, 3D velocity data were collected on Sugar Creek at Brookside Farm, IL, USA, and 3D numerical simulations for low-, medium and high-flow conditions were performed.

Related journal publications:
Abad, J. D., Rhoads, B. L., Guneralp, I., García, M. H. Flow structure at different stages in a meander-bend with bendway weirs. In Press, Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, ASCE, 2006.

[4] Secondary flow in submarine channels
Collaborators: Marcelo H. García, Gary Parker

Related journal publications:
Abad, J. D., García, M. H. and Parker, G. Near-bed secondary current of saline underflow at bend apex of a highly meandering channel. Submitted to Journal of Sedimentary Research, 2006.