Experimental and numerical validation of the dead-zone model for longitudinal dispersion in rivers

Experimental results of longitudinal dispersion in rivers are discussed in the light of new findings with respect to the "dead-zone" theory. Both the experiments made by authors as well as some literature results are taken into consideration. The dead-zone model parameters, namely the relative dead-zone volume, penetration time of the tracer into dead-zones, constant mean flow velocity and dispersion coefficient, are obtained with the use of the nonlinear least square technique applied to the image functions of concentration time-distributions. The statistical moments of the concentration time distributions as functions of distance are also analyzed. Expressions for statistical moments, recently obtained by authors, are found to agree well with both experimental and computational results.