Abstract: Sand storage pits play a temporary role in dredging and reclamation process for large offshore projects such as port and land reclamation, but their setting is limited by site conditions and construction period. At present, little previous research or practical experience is available on the process and mechanism of sediment loss during no-storage-pit operation, and its estimation method is lacking. This paper reports a study on the loss of sediment storage in dredger fill with no sand storage pit during the construction of the Gulei sand fill project by combining site observations of its construction process with numerical simulation of its typical working conditions. Results show that under the condition of no storage pit, sediment loss mainly occurs in the stage of sand accumulation, and that the loss rates obtained by numerical simulations and field observations are in a range of 14%-16%. This study would lay a basis for further studies on mathematical modeling and field observation of dredger fill with no sand storage pit.

Key words: dredging work, sediment diffusion, shallow water area, simulation analysis, sediment fill without storage