Effects of surface waves on hyporheic exchange over a permeable gravel bed

Hyporheic exchange represents the interactions between surface and subsurface flows occurring at various geophysical scales. Its importance to the riverine ecological health and the fate of contaminants has long been recognized. Traditionally, the behaviors of hyporheic exchange are explained by the emergence of geomorphological features, such as dune-shaped bedforms, that usually introduce significant pressure differences along the channel bed and, therefore, facilitate exchanges by pumping the flow inward and outward the bed. In addition to this advective mechanism, near-bed turbulence has also been identified as another driver of flow exchange through the turbulent diffusive processes. This study, on the other hand, highlights the decisive control of surface waves on the hyporheic exchange at depth-limited flow conditions, especially for those unbroken standing waves commonly encountered in river riffle areas. It is hypothesized that the presence of surface waves will reshape the distribution of near-bed hydrodynamic pressures, thus altering the properties of advective flows along the channel bed. The validity of this hypothesis is carefully examined through the laboratory experiments using Refractive-Index-Matched (RIM) liquid and solid materials and Particle Tracking Velocimetry (PTV) techniques. This experimental setting helps to simultaneously resolve the surface and subsurface flow patterns to a sufficient detail; the hydrodynamic pressure field can then be derived from the obtained flow velocity fields. Further analysis in a Double-Averaged Navier-Stokes framework indicates that, among different contributing factors, pressure gradient is found to be the most dominant driver of interface exchange. The variations of this driving mechanism, interestingly, can be further decomposed into two parts, namely, the surface wave associated (global-scale) and the bed grain associated (local-scale) components, respectively.