Abstract

ARAUJO, Lake Carlos; RINCON, José  and  FLORES, Janett. Hydraulic Proposals for reducing sedimentation rates on the navigation channel of Maracaibo . Rev. Téc. Ing. Univ. Zulia [online]. 2015, vol.38, n.2, pp.95-103. ISSN 0254-0770.

The Maracaibo Lake’s navigation channel is a lacustrine route that allows navigation of ships with a deep draft through the El Tablazo bay, a shallow water body within the Maracaibo Lake System, at the northeast of Venezuela. With the construction of the navigation channel, the natural symmetry of the morphology of the bay was broken; in consequence, the system tries to recover it by a natural process of sedimentation. Therefore, it is necessary to maintain the channel by frequent dredging activities that may have a potential environmental impact on the system. Using a model based on the finite volume method, this paper presents the computational evaluation of four strategies for reducing sedimentation rates on the Maracaibo Lake’s navigation channel, which were derived in a previous diagnosis of sediment dynamics in the El Tablazo bay. The results show that an extension (1.5 km) of the existing western breakwater at the north of the bay is the strategy that increases the self-cleaning capacity of the channel without affecting the current pattern in the bay.

Keywords : El Tablazo Bay; sedimentation rate; navigation channel.

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