Alex Kirichek

Delft University of Technology | TU · Department of Hydraulic Engineering

The nautical bottom (i.e., the level at which contact with a ship's keel causes either damage or unacceptable effects on controllability and manoeuvrability of a ship) should be associated to a measurable physical characteristic. Bulk density is typically used as a criterion for nautical bottom by many ports worldwide. However, the rheological prop...

Flocculation between inorganic sediment, salt ions and microscopic organic matter present in the marine environment might play an important role in the dynamics of turbidity currents. The ability to predict, understand, and potentially leverage the effect of flocculation on turbidity currents will help to minimize the impact of human interventions...

Kaolin based suspensions have wide range of applications such as slurry wall, drilling fluids, adhesives, cosmetics, refractories and pharmaceuticals, due to their abundance in nature, low cost and non-swelling nature. On the other hand, the unique properties (i.e., biodegradability) of biopolymers make them suitable candidate for variety of applic...

When investigating the effect of muddy seabeds on marine vessels using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software, one challenge is to adequately describe the complex non-Newtonian fluid behaviour of mud. Although a number of rheological models have been proposed in the past, mud sediments are often simply regarded either as highly viscous Newtoni...

Knowledge about the characteristics of fluid mud in ports and waterways would allow safer navigating through fluid mud. The properties of the fluid mud determine the feasibility of navigating vessels through the fluid mud. Seismic waves have the potential to help characterize the fluid-mud layers, especially when both P- and S-waves are used. To in...

This work shows the potential of using DAS for continuous water-depth monitoring by using the difference in acoustic energy in water and mud. The advantage over conventional methods is that our method can be used continuously and remotely, given that there is traffic nearby. Due to the low cost of fibres and the far-reaching dynamic range of interr...

Water Injection Dredging (WID) has been successfully applied for removing sediment deposits in reservoirs, which results in an increase of their storage capacity. This dredging method is based on the fluidization of the top sediment layer by pressurized injection of water by a dredging vessel. The fluidized sediment can be transported towards the d...

For green energy transition, the industry seeks alternative resources for nickel and cobalt, the main ingredients for energy storage devices and other applications. Polymetallic nodules lying at the abyssal plain are rich in these mineral resources, which leads to an increased interest in deep-sea mining (DSM) of polymetallic nodules. During the DS...

Monitoring the nautical depth is vital for the safe passage of water transport. Port authorities worldwide have different navigable depth criteria and use various methods to ensure the safe navigability and manoeuvrability of ships in ports and waterways. These measurements often require a surveying vessel and are limited in repeatability and accur...

Maintenance of the nautical depth in the seaport of Emden, Germany, is achieved by re-circulation of fluid mud using a trailing suction hopper dredger. Continued re-circulation has proven to maintain low settling rates and to keep yield stresses of re-circulated fluid mud below 50-100 Pa, in combination with densities of 1.15-1.2 t/m³ enabling safe...

In some ports and waterways, hindered (delayed) settling of mud suspended in the water phase can be detected. Hindered settling phenomena are typically linked to a combination of sediment properties, suspended sediment concentration or density, hydrodynamic conditions, presence or absence of organic bridging between mud particles and the properties...

Soft mud deposits are increasingly encountered around the world, from natural offshore deposits and mud layers in estuaries, ports, and waterways to progressively growing leftover from treatment and extraction facilities, mines, and oil refineries. Reliable monitoring of the temporal and spatial strength buildup in such deposits is crucial to optim...

Purpose Current surveying techniques used by port authorities to estimate the nautical depth are limited in depth resolution and temporal resolution. Because of this, certain heavily occupied quay walls cannot be optimised in terms of utilisation. Therefore, a permanent continuous measuring system with a higher depth resolution is needed to optimis...

The presence of clay-organic flocs in cohesive mud results in a complex rheological behavior of mud, including viscoelasticity, shear-thinning, thixotropy and two-step yielding. In this study, the effect of microbial degradation of organic matter on the rheological properties of mud samples, collected from different ports, was examined. The mud sam...

Fluid mud plays an important role in navigability in ports and waterways. Characterizing and monitoring the seismic properties of the fluid mud can help understand its geotechnical behavior. Estimation of the wave velocities in fluid mud with high accuracy and repeatability enables investigating the behavior of parameters like the yield stress in a...

Purpose Sediment organic matter (SOM) influences settling and thus the rheological behavior of suspended particles by enhancing flocculation or reducing surface charges by forming organo-mineral complexes that facilitate particle–particle interactions in consolidating sediments. It was, therefore, assumed that the microbial degradation of SOM and i...

Purpose The presence of organic matter in cohesive sediment results in the formation of clay-organic flocs, which eventually impart complex rheological behavior including shear-thinning, viscoelasticity, thixotropy and two-step yielding to mud. In this study, the influence of microbial degradation of sediment organic matter on the rheological prope...

Water Injection Dredging (WID) has been successfully applied for removing sediment deposits in reservoirs, which results in an increase of their storage capacity. This dredging method is based on the fluidization of the top sediment layer by pressurized injection of water by a dredging vessel. The fluidized sediment can be transported towards the d...

Kaolinite suspensions are known to have quite fast settling behaviour and Newtonian character, particularly at low concentrations, due to the non-swelling nature of their constitutive particles. On the other hand, bentonite is known for its swelling and interacting nature, which leads to the formation of a network structure, even at low concentrati...

Natural fine-grained suspensions usually exhibit a complex rheological fingerprint – in particular a two-step yielding phenomenon – due to the presence of mineral clay particles and organic matter (often found in a flocculated state). These rheological properties may vary considerably from one location to another due to the differences in mud compo...

The report is available on the TKI wiki page via: https://publicwiki.deltares.nl/display/TKIP/DEL101+-+Innovatief+Sediment+Management+voor+Havens The navigation in ports and waterways must be safeguarded by maintenance dredging, i.e. removing of deposited sediments. The dredged sediment is typically reallocated offshore. As maintenance dredging...

Natural mud sediments display complex rheological behaviour like thixotropy, viscoelasticity and yield stress. These rheological characteristics can significantly vary over depth, from one mud layer to another, as each layer can have a different density and composition. Fast and reliable measurements of yield stresses of mud sediment samples are im...

The main objective of this chapter is to demonstrate developments in port maintenance techniques that have been intensively tested in major European ports. As regular port maintenance is highly expensive, port authorities are considering alternative strategies. Water Injection Dredging (WID) can be one of the most efficient alternatives. Using this...

Mud, a cohesive material, consists of water, clay minerals, sand, silt and small quantities of organic matter (i.e., biopolymers). Amongst the different mud layers formed by human or natural activities, the fluid mud layer found on top of all the others is quite important from navigational point of view in ports and waterways. Rheological propertie...

In ports and waterways, the bathymetry is regularly surveyed for updating navigation charts ensuring safe transport. In port areas with fluid-mud layers, most traditional surveying techniques are accurate but are intrusive and provide one-dimensional measurements limiting their application. Current non-intrusive surveying techniques are less accura...

The velocities of the seismic waves propagating in the fluid-mud layer are governed by the rheological properties and density of the fluid mud. Performing seismic transmission measurements inside the fluid mud can give good estimates of the seismic velocities and, thus, of the rheological properties and density. Laboratory ultrasonic transmission m...

Ultrasound measurements are routinely used to evaluate the safe depth for ships navigation-nautical depth-at waterways and ports using single-beam dual-frequency echo-sounders. The nautical depth is routinely defined by suspension density in the range of 1100-1300 kg/m3 in the mud layer. While ultrasound measurements have a weak sensitivity to dens...

At Deltares in the Netherlands, a research team is developing a portfolio of technologies dedicated to the management of the finest and most challenging fraction of soft sediments. These technologies may unambiguously be called nature based because they make use of natural processes to enhance dewatering and strengthening, induce flocculation and t...

Investigation of fluid mud from ports and waterways gives more knowledge about navigating through fluid mud so that more cargo can be loaded on the ships and less dredging is performed. The properties of the fluid mud determine the feasibility of navigating vessels through the fluid mud. Seismic waves have the potential to characterize the fluid mu...

Natural mud usually exhibits non-Newtonian rheological behaviors like viscoelasticity, thixotropy and yield stress. The history of each mud sample is also an important factor influencing the rheological behavior, as the state of the clay fabric – for a same composition – is dependent on the shear stresses experienced previously by the sample. Sever...

As regular maintenance and relocation of sediment deposits are highly expensive, Port authorities seek more efficient solutions for reducing the costs and CO2 emissions of maintenance dredging. One solution, water injection dredging (WID), is carried out for maintaining the sediment deposits which predominantly consist of clay and silt. WID has bee...

摘要： 射流疏浚（Water Injection Dredging, 简称 WID）已成功应用于港口和航道中的沉积物移除。这种疏浚方法基于通过安装在射流挖泥船上泵加压注水的方式使上层沉积物层流化。流化的 沉积物可以通过重力或自然洋流来输送。建模、现场和实验室测量工具的最新进展使股东能够对港口和航道中的射流疏浚进行设计，优化 和监控。 本文将展示可用建模工具的功能，这些建模工具可以有效地用于评估出于维护目的的备选 疏浚策略。特别值得一提的是，我们将展示中场和远场建模方法如何能够用于预测射流疏浚后的沉 积物羽流动力学和沉积物分布，从而帮助确定实行射流疏浚的最佳条件。

Ontwatering van slib is met de gangbare technieken tijdrovend, energieslurpend en milieuvervuilend. Er bestaat een natuurlijke manier om de waterfractie te verwijderen: met oligochaeten, wormen die zich voeden met restmateriaal, zoals de vertrouwde regenworm. Maar het is wel nodig de omstandigheden te optimaliseren, opdat ze hun nuttig werk kunnen...

Purpose An innovative way to define navigable fluid mud layers is to make use of their rheological properties, in particular their yield stress. In order to help the development of in situ measurement techniques, it is essential that the key rheological parameters are estimated beforehand. Is there only one yield stress? In which shear rate/shear s...

Purpose Fluid mud layers can be substantial in waterways and they can jeopardise navigation when the ship’s keel comes in its vicinity. The nautical bottom has therefore to be properly characterised. Mud density and yield stress are used as criteria to characterise the nautical bottom. For a decade, measuring these parameters in situ has been a cha...

Yield stress materials have a wide range of commercial applications. Yet the suitable way of determining the yield stress values of a given material has been the subject of many studies and debates. Yield stresses are dependent on the material (shear) history and composition, which implies that robust protocols should be developed to study the yiel...

Mud sediments can exhibit a complex rheological behaviour particularly a thixotropic character due to the presence of organic matter/biopolymer. Such biopolymers can lead towards the development of flocculated structures having multiple length scales which are sensitive to shearing rate and history. In this study, the extent and rate of structural...

As conventional dredging and relocation of sediment deposits is highly expensive, port authorities seek for more efficient solutions for reducing the costs of maintenance dredging. One of the well-known solutions is water injection dredging (WID). In general, WID is proven to be cheaper than the hopper dredging by leaving the sediment in place, thu...

Mud is a cohesive material which contains predominantly clay minerals, water, organic matter and some amounts of silt and sand. Mud samples can have complex rheological behaviour, displaying viscoelasticity, shear-thinning, thixotropy and yield stress. In this study, influence of organic matter on the rheological behaviour of different mud samples...

Fluid mud can be described as a mixture of water, organic matter and mainly cohesive mineral sediment that is usually found in estuaries and in rivers with low-intensity currents. It is in a transient state and can densify over time unless mixing (produced by mechanical and/or natural forces) prevents its gelling. Typically, fluid mud exhibits bulk...

4-electrode setups are usually used to measure the dielectric response (complex conductivity) of sandstones, as it is known that 2-electrode systems are sensitive to unwanted electrode polarization at low frequency. Moreover, electrode polarization (EP) occurs in the frequency range where the characteristic relaxation associated to the grain size a...

This paper provides a new insight into the surveying strategies that are used (or can be potentially used) in ports and waterways with fluid mud layers. The combination of acoustic methods with other methods, which are based on the density or on the shear strength measurements, is discussed. In particular, the measurements by the DensX, the Rheotun...

This article gives an overview of the research that has been conducted to get a better understanding of the navigation in ports and waterways with fluid mud layers. In particular, the up-to-date review of reported full scale experiments that involve real vessels is provided. To study physical processes, the full-scale experiments are accompanied by...

The goal of this PhD research was to develop and experimentally validate a new integrated quantitative approach for geophysical characterization of porous media. In my PhD thesis this approach is presented, providing a new tool for predicting the reservoir properties and their dynamic changes for CO2 storage monitoring. A home-made multi-sensor c...