Alabama Highway Drainage Conservation Design Practices: Particulate Transport in Grass Swales and Grass Filters Final Report (1 Jan 04-31 Nov 05)

摘要

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alabama has been conducting research on the effectiveness of grass swales for stormwater sediment transport to quantify swale hydraulic and sediment transport under relatively small flows. This research was supported by the Water Environment Research Foundation and the University Transportation Center of Alabama (this reported research). Grass swales are vegetated open channels that collect and transport stormwater runoff, which can be used alternatives to concrete gutters for stormwater management, because of their advantages of infiltration and filtration of stormwater. The objective of this research was to understand the effectiveness of grass swales in sediment transport and the associated effects of different swale and hydraulic variables, and to develop a predictive model. To achieve these objectives, experimental grass swales were constructed and tested in an indoor greenhouse facility. The variables tested in the experiments were slope, grass type, depth of flow, sampling time, and length of swales. A water- sediment mixture with a known sediment concentration of sieved sands and fine particles of silica was used to analyze the variables.