Bed Load Transport Modelling Using Kinetic Theory

Czech Technical University in Prague, Civil Engineering, 16629 Prague 6, Czech Republic

Abstract

Intense transport of bed load is associated with highconcentrated sediment-laden flow over a plane mobile bed at high bed shear. Typically, the flow exhibits a layered internal structure in which a vast majority of sediment grains is transported through a collisional layer above the bed. Our investigation focuses on steady uniform open-channel flow with a developed collisional transport layer and combines modelling and experiment to relate integral quantities, as the discharge of solids, discharge of mixture, and flow depth with the longitudinal slope of the bed and the internal structure of the flow above the bed. In the paper, flow with the internal structure described by linear vertical distributions of granular velocity and concentration across the collisional layer is analyzed by a model based on the classical kinetic theory of granular flows. The model predicts the total discharge, the discharge of sediment, and the flow depth for given (experimentally determined) bed slope and thickness of collisional layer. The model also predicts whether the intefacial dense layer develops between the bed and the collisional layer and how thick it is. Model predictions are compared with results of intense bed-load experiment carried out for lightweight sediment in our laboratory tilting flume.