Research progress of annular flume technology

The background and principle of the annular flume technology were introduced. A complete literature review of the research progress by using the annular flume in China and other countries was presented including annular flume numerical simulation, experiments on the scene etc. On the basis of the existing progress, the potential application prospects of annular flume technology in the study of cohesive sediment characteristics are summarized briefly. There are lots of rivers in China with many different types. A huge amount sediments was carried into the sea every year, for example, the actual sediment carried into the sea from Yangtze river has the maximum amount of 0.678 billion tons, of whichthe cohesive fine sediments accounts for the majority, part of which settles down in the estuary area([1]). The research on the deposition, erosion and some other movement principles of the cohesive fine sediment is the important part of the study of fine sediment and pollutant transport and diffusion. Fine sediment movement not only subjects to the control of flow condition, bioturbation, but also depends largely on the sediment itself geometric, physical and chemical properties(such as particle size, shape, pore water, mineral components, etc.), these result a big difference of motion compared to non-viscous coarse sediment. Partheniades([2-5]) and his partner designed the annular flume. After that, annular flume is widely used in the study of sediment erosion, deposition, transport, and other aspects by researchers, and the researchers have made a series of progress, bring an important impact on estuary development and evolution, channel regulation and coastal engineering construction.