A Large Scale Dye Tracing Experiment Measuring Times of Travel in the
upper Yellow River, Baotou, Inner Mongolia, China
Abstract
To determine the times of travel within a 170.6 km long reach in the
upper Yellow River, we carried out a dye experiment in May 2017. 48.75
kg of dye was poured simultaneously at 39 points on a floating bridge.
Water samples at eight sites were collected at left bank flow, center
flow, and right bank flow considering both the traffic convenience and
the safety production. A Fluorometer 10-005 was used to measure the dye
concentration in the water samples. A three-parameter lognormal
distribution equation, where the logarithm is to the base e, was used to
fit the observed time concentration data to establish the
time-concentration response curve and to establish the probability
density function. For a conservative tracer, the time concentration
curve was generated by multiplying the fitted probability density
function and its coefficient. The travel times of different parts of the
dye plume for the seven sampling sites and mean velocities and
longitudinal dispersion rates for five sub reaches were calculated. The
mean velocities of centroid of dye plume ranged from 0.49 m
$s^{-1}$ to 0.69 m $s^{-1}$ and the dispersion rates range
from 0.13 m $s^{-1}$ to 0.37 m $s^{-1}$ for the discharge
of 233 $m^3$ $s^{-1}$ measured at the Baotou hydrometric
station. Several empirical relations are given for attenuation of the
peak probability density, passage time, travel times of leading-edge,
travel times of centroid and travel times of trailing edge of the dye
plume in the upper Yellow River, Baotou, Inner Mongolia,
China.\\