Hysteretic Implications for Graded Bed Load Sediment Transport in Symmetrical Hydrograph Flows

Differential parametric values associated with bed load sediment transport, that result at the same discharge levels on the rising and falling limbs of a flood hydrograph, are usually defined as bed load hysteresis. This hysteresis in bed load sediment transport rates is of considerable interest in the field of fluvial hydraulics. Within this study, a series of well-defined, symmetrical hydrograph flows are generated over a graded, mobile sediment bed to fully examine the hysteresis of the resulting bed load sediment transport in terms of the threshold of motion, and differential bed load transport rates and bed load yields during the hydrographs. The experiments are conducted in a titling flume without sediment supply specified at the upstream inlet, thereby representing typical river reach conditions immediately downstream of a dam that are exclusively subject to net in-channel bed degradation from sediment transport initiated during flood events. Our results show that the fractional bed load transport of defined fine, medium and coarse size classes within the graded sediment bed generally display clockwise, no/mixed and counter-clockwise hysteresis patterns, respectively, with clockwise hysteresis most commonly found for the coarse size class mobilised by hydrographs with long durations. By contrast, counter-clockwise hysteresis is usually observed for fine size class transported by hydrographs with short durations. Accordingly, the corresponding reference stresses for each size class vary between different hydrographs and are primarily controlled by the hydrograph flashiness (i.e. unsteadiness) and magnitude (i.e. total water work). Moreover, it is shown that the hysteresis effect, particularly for those size classes and hydrograph combinations that result in clockwise and counter-clockwise behaviour, should be fully accounted for when reproducing bed load transport rates using separate-limb based method. Finally, we investigate the relative fractions of the overall bed load yields generated during the rising and falling limbs of all symmetrical hydrographs (i.e. the bed load yield ratio), which are found to be primarily dependent on bed load transport hysteresis. Finally, the relationship between the bed load yield ratio and the ratio of reference stresses for the fractional sediment motion of each size class on both limbs is found to follow a power law.

Regularity of transportation for cohesive bank-collapsed materials

The transportation of bank-collapsed materials is a key issue among river evolution processes. In this study, a series of flume experiments were conducted to monitor riverbank collapse processes and to explore the regularity of transportation for cohesive collapsed materials. The collapsed materials, both the bed and suspended loads, that transformed from collapsed materials were intensively evaluated under experimental conditions. The results showed that the collapsed materials contributed to 12～20 % sedimentation in situ, 8～14 % suspended loads and 70～80 % bed loads. In addition, the bed load motion efficiency coefficient (eb), suspended load motion efficiency coefficient (es) and sediment carrying capacity factor (U3/gRω) were introduced to describe the transportation of collapsed materials in terms of energy dissipation. This research provides theoretical and practical benefits for predicting channel evolution processes.

Experimental analysis of the effect of bed-load movement on flow hydraulic characteristics

In this study, the effect of bed-load movement on mean flow characteristics was evaluated in two rigid rectangular flumes. The experiments consisted of creating flow conditions carrying sediments with mean diameters of D50 = 0.5, 0.6, and 2.84 mm over both smooth and rough beds. Various sediment concentrations were injected at the upstream end of the flume at non-deposit injection rates to study the effect of various concentrations on flow resistance. The effect of sediment movement on flow resistance was examined by comparing the results with those of clear water flows (without sediment injection on both smooth and rough beds). The results showed that the sediment transport in maximum injection rate may increase the friction factor up to 50 and 58 percent for smooth bed, and up to about 75 and 80 percent in rough bed with mean diameter of 0.5 and 0.6 mm. Besides, for D50 = 2.84 mm, the friction factor decreased in smooth bed and increased up to 50 percent in rough bed. In general, it can be concluded that bed-load transport can be increased by the flow friction factor. The results also showed that bed-loads may decrease the average velocity and increase shear velocity with extraction of momentum from the flow, which both of mentioned factors may increase the flow friction factor. Raising the bed-load concentration in the flow may increase the elevation of the friction factor, approaching a constant value after reaching to the aggregation threshold and generation of bed forms.

Mechanisms and Countermeasures on Sediment and Wood Damage in Sediment Retarding Basins

Improvements in sediment retarding basin design are required to mitigate flood damage caused by bed load and wood debris outflow in lower river reaches. We used a scaled sediment retarding basin model to optimize our basin design, with the goal of improving sediment and wood debris transport and capture. Changes to the structural dimensions and elements of the sediment retarding basin were assessed under experimental debris flow conditions. The results obtained from the experiments and simulations were in good agreement regarding sediment flow and containment. The proposed one-dimensional model is useful for showing the effects of flow conditions within a sediment retarding basin on sediment transport.

Validation of a two-layer depth-averaged model by comparison with an experimental dilute stratified pyroclastic density current

Numerical results of a two-layer depth-averaged model of pyroclastic density currents (PDCs) were compared with an experimental PDC generated at the international eruption simulator facility (the Pyroclastic flow Eruption Large-scale Experiment (PELE)) to establish a minimal dynamical model of PDCs with stratification of particle concentrations. In the present two-layer model, the stratification in PDCs is modeled as a voluminous suspended-load layer with low particle volume fractions ($$\lesssim {10}^{-3})$$ ≲ 10 - 3 ) and a thin basal bed-load layer with higher particle volume fractions ($$\sim {10}^{-2}$$ ∼ 10 - 2 ) on the basis of the source condition in the experiment. Numerical results for the suspended load quantitatively reproduce the time evolutions of the front position and flow thickness in the experimental PDC. The numerical results of the bed-load and deposit thicknesses depend on an assumed value of settling speed at the bottom of the bed load ($${W}_{\mathrm{sH}}$$ W sH ). We show that the thicknesses of bed load and deposit in the simulations agree well with the experimental data, when $${W}_{\mathrm{sH}}$$ W sH is set to about $$1.25\times {10}^{-2}$$ 1.25 × 10 - 2 m/s. This value of the settling speed is two orders of magnitude smaller than that predicted by a hindered-settling model. The small value of $${W}_{\mathrm{sH}}$$ W sH is considered to result from decreasing in the effective deposition speed due to the erosion process accompanied by saltating/rolling of particles at the bottom of the bed load.

Extending the Applicability of the Meyer–Peter and Müller Bed Load Transport Formula

The present paper deals with the applicability of the Meyer–Peter and Müller (MPM) bed load transport formula. The performance of the formula is examined on data collected in a particular location of Nestos River in Thrace, Greece, in comparison to a proposed Εnhanced MPM (EMPM) formula and to two typical machine learning methods, namely Random Forests (RF) and Gaussian Processes Regression (GPR). The EMPM contains new adjustment parameters allowing calibration. The EMPM clearly outperforms MPM and, also, it turns out to be quite competitive in comparison to the machine learning schemes. Calibrations are repeated with suitably smoothed measurement data and, in this case, EMPM outperforms MPM, RF and GPR. Data smoothing for the present problem is discussed in view of a special nearest neighbor smoothing process, which is introduced in combination with nonlinear regression.

Grain shape effects in bed load sediment transport

Bed load sediment transport, in which wind or water flowing over a bed of sediment causes grains to roll or hop along the bed, is a critically important mechanism in contexts ranging from river restoration to planetary exploration. Despite its widespread occurrence, predictions of bed load sediment flux are notoriously imprecise. Many studies have focused on grain size variability as a source of uncertainty, but few have investigated the role of grain shape, even though shape has long been suspected to influence transport rates. Here we show that grain shape can modify bed load transport rates by an amount comparable to the scatter in many sediment transport data sets. We develop a theory that accounts for grain shape effects on fluid drag and granular friction and predicts that the onset and efficiency of bed load transport depend on the mean drag coefficient and bulk friction coefficient of the transported grains. Laboratory flume experiments using a variety of grain shapes confirm these predictions. We propose a shape-independent sediment transport law that collapses our experimental measurements onto a single trend, allowing for more accurate predictions of sediment transport and helping reconcile theory developed for spherical particle transport with the behavior of natural sediment grains.