2016-12-23T18:37:48

As part of the Estuarine Cohesive Sediments (EsCoSed) project, a field experiment was performed in a highly engineered environment, acting as a natural laboratory, to study the physico-chemical properties of estuarine sediments and the associated hydro-morphodynamics during different seasons. The present contribution focuses on the results obtained from the summertime monitoring of the most downstream part of the Misa River (Senigallia, Italy). The measured hydrodynamics suggested a strong interaction between river current, wave forcing and tidal motion; flow velocities, affected by wind waves traveling upstream, changed significantly along the water column in both direction and magnitude. Surficial salinities in the estuary were low in the upper reaches of the estuary and exceeded 10 psu before the river mouth. Montmorillonite dominated the clay mineral assemblage, suggesting that large, low density flocs with high settling velocities (>1 mm s(-1)) may dominate the suspended aggregate materials.

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The rotations of a parametric pendulum fitted onto a suitable floating support and forced to move vertically under the action of water waves have been studied on the basis of a dedicated wave flume laboratory experiment. An extended experimental campaign has been carried out with the aim of providing insight into the mechanics of the pendulum’s response to the wave forcing and data useful as a benchmark for available theories. A large number of time histories of the pendulum’s angular position have been collected. Rotations have been detected for different values of the frequency and of the amplitude of the excitation, showing the robustness in parameter space, and for different initial conditions, showing the robustness in phase space. This experiment, suggested by the recently developed concept of extracting energy from sea waves, constitutes preliminary experimental proof of that concept’s practical feasibility.