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Mark Schmeeckle
Ph.D. University of Colorado, Boulder,
1998
Office: Coor 5638
Phone: (480) 965-7246
Fax: (480) 965-8313
schmeeckle@asu.edu
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General Interests
My
research interest is in landscape mechanics
with a primary focus on fluvial geomorphology, sediment transport, and
surface water processes.
Current Research
Projects
- Interaction of
suspended sediment with turbulence structures in rivers. I am trying to
understand how turbulence entrains and disentrains
suspended sediment grains from a river bed when there is simultaneous bedload transport. High-speed video in
laboratory flumes and discrete particle models are being used to
understand this process. Large eddy simulations(LES)
of turbulence in natural channels (with Yasuyuki Shimizu, Hokkaido
University, Japan and Ryosuke Akahori, ASU) along with field and
laboratory experiments are
being employed to find out how larger-scale turbulent motions
redistribute suspended sediment across river channels. A key issue is
to understand how vegetation affects lateral turbulent structures,
especially during overbank flows.
- Flow , sediment transport, and
morphodymanics of semi-arid first order streams (with Mary
Nichols, USDA ARS, Tucson and Brendan Yuill, ASU). We are modeling and
measuring flow and sediment transport in first order channels in the
Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed at Tombstone, Arizona. We are
analyzing flow and sediment data that has been collected in the streams
over the last fifty years. Our goal is to understand the response of
first order semi-arid streams to the varying frequency and magnitude of
summer monsoonal storm flow events, so that we can physically explain
channel incision that has taken place in response to climatic and
vegetation changes.
- Sediment Transport Mechanics in Steep
Mountain Streams (with Elowyn Yager and Bill Dietrich UC
Berkeley). Gravel is transported through large immobile boulders in
many steep mountain streams. Current gravel sediment transport theory
was not formulated to account for the effects of the fixed boulders. We
are conducting PIV and quantitative high-speed visualization
experiments of bedload transport through large fixed roughness elements
(immobile spheres) in the River Dynamics Lab at
ASU to help answer this problem.
- Suspended Sediment
Transport through Bouldery Beds (with Peter Wilcock and Paul Grams,
Johns Hopkins) Current suspended sediment transport relations were not
formulated to work over river beds that have large immobile boulders,
such as the Colorado River. We are conducting laboratory
experiments that visualize how suspended sediment is entrained and
disentrained by near-bed turbulence structures around large immobile
roughness elements.
- Turbulence structure
and bedload
transport in rivers (with Jon Nelson,
USGS and Ron Shreve, Washington/UCLA). We use high-speed,
particle-imaging velocimetry (PIV) and a
novel high-frequency two-dimensional force transducer to understand the
coupling between turbulence and the forces on grains in rivers. In one
set of experiments we are measuring the forces on natural grains with
the goal of being able to explain how grains become aligned (imbricated) with respect to the flow.
- Turbulence, dynamics,
and sediment transport over wave-generated sea-bed ripples. (with Joe Fernando
and Sergey Voropayev in ASU's Environmental Fluid
Dynamics Program.)
- Rainsplash transport
and the evolution of hillslopes (with David
Furbish,Vanderbilt and Yousuff Hussaini, FSU) we are using high-speed videography to track the paths of individual
grains following a raindrop impact. Our aim is to formulate physically
accurate models of rainsplash transport on
hillslopes that can then be
used in models of landscape evolution.
- Growth and evolution
of fine-grained bars in the Grand Canyon (with David Topping,
Scott Wright, and Ted Melis, USGS and Ryosuke Akahori, ASU). Closing of
Glen Canyon
Dam has reduced the sediment sizes available to build eddy sand bars.
It may be possible to rebuild these degrading beaches with finer grain
sizes that are cohesive. We are currently conducting laboratory flume
experiments on fine-grained samples collected from Grand Canyon to
determine the sediment transport properties that these replenished
beaches would have.
Selected
Publications
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Schmeeckle,
M. W., J. M. Nelson, and R. L. Shreve (2007), Forces on stationary
particles in near-bed turbulent flows, J. Geophys. Res., 112, F02003,
doi:10.1029/2006JF000536.
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Furbish, D.
J., K. K. Hamner, M. Schmeeckle, M. N. Borosund, and S. M.
Mudd (2007), Rain splash of dry sand revealed by
high-speed imaging and sticky paper splash targets, J. Geophys. Res.,
112,
F01001, doi:10.1029/2006JF000498.
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Douglass,
J.C. and M.W. Schmeeckle (2007), Analogue modeling of
transverse drainage mechanisms, Geomorphology, Vol. 84, 22-43.
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Mango,
A.J., M.W. Schmeeckle,and D.J. Furbish. 2004. Tidally-induced
groundwater circulation in an unconfined coastal aquifer modeled with a
Hele-Shaw cell. Geology. Vol 32(3). p233-236.
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Schmeeckle,
M.W. and J.M. Nelson.
2003. Direct numerical simulation of bedload
transport using a local, dynamic boundary condition. Sedimentology. Vol
50, p. 279-301.
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Schmeeckle,
M.W., J.M. Nelson, J.
Pitlick and J.P. Bennett. 2001. Interparticle
collision of natural sediment grains in water. Water Resources Research
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Vol. 37(9).p 2377-2392.
Courses
GPH
511 - Fluvial Processes-syllabus
GPH 411- Physical
Geography-syllabus
Animations
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