Abstract: Economical and efficient sediment dredging is a key objective pursued by sediment workers. Previous indoor experimental results have demonstrated the promising dredging capacity and potential application of a recently suggested movable hydraulic dredging device. To further evaluate the device's effectiveness in practical field applications, this study conducts prototype experiments at two representative locations: Forebay No. 8 and the Yellow River bank in front of a water intake, both located within the first level station of Donglei Yellow River Pumping Project in Weinan, Shanxi. The results reveal the device effectively maintains a high sediment concentration throughout the entire dredging process. At the two sites, the mean sediment concentration reaches 560 kg/m3 and 330 kg/m3 respectively, obviously higher than those achieved by the previous indoor experiments and the traditional hydro-suction devices. These outcomes underscore the exceptional prototype dredging efficiency of our new design of the device. We have achieved an optimized scheme to address the current sedimentation issue faced by the pumping station－constructing a desilting basin in the upper and middle sections of Forebay No. 8, in combination with application of the device. Implementing this approach will achieve significant dredging and engineering benefits. Not only can sedimentation be reduced substantially, ensuring the long-term stable operation of the pumping station, but the obtained sediment can be utilized as construction sand, further enhancing its practical value.

Key words: moveable hydro-suction dredging, prototype experiments, sand-sluicing with jet flow, hyper-sediment concentration