Sand settling through bedform-generated turbulence in rivers

Fluvial bedforms generate a turbulent wake that can impact suspended‐sediment settling in the passing flow. This impact has implications for local suspended‐sediment transport, bedform stability, and channel evolution; however, it is typically not well‐considered in geomorphologic models. Our study uses a three‐dimensional OpenFOAM hydrodynamic and particle‐tracking model to investigate how turbulence generated from bedforms and the channel bed influences medium sand‐sized particle settling, in terms of the distribution of suspended particles within the flow field and particle‐settling velocities.