Yamada, F., Tateyama, R., Tsujimoto, G., Suenaga, S., Long, B. and Pilot, C. 2013. Dynamic monitoring of physical models beach morphology and sediment transport using X-ray CT scanning technique
A medical X-ray CT scanner was applied to dynamic measurements of beach profile changes, sedimentary structures, and sediment transport processes during wave actions in the laboratory experiments. An acrylic flume 7 m long and with an inner rectangular cross-section of 0.3 m × 0.3 m passes through the mobile gantry of a medical X-ray CT-scanner. The experiments were conducted at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) at the University of Quebec from August 18 to October 16, 2011. The flume was filled with Ottawa sand (d50 = 0.147 mm) with uniform slope of 1/15. The water depth over a horizontal bed is 0.2 m. Regular waves were used with wave height of 4.0 cm and wave period of 0.7 s. In order to measure the cross-shore evolutions both of beach profiles and sediment transport process, the CT-scanner moves automatically along the flume. Therefore, the core samplings were not needed and the continuous measurements of beach profiles and sediment transport process in cross-shore directions can be conducted with non-destructive and non-contact conditions. By reconstructing three-dimensional images using Hounsfield units, the evolution of beach morphology was examined. Because medical X-ray computed tomography has the advantage of a data acquisition time of 1.0 seconds for sediment transport processes during wave action, the obtained data, such as that of the suspended and bed load, are useful for clarifying the mechanism of profile change and validating numerical models.
