Experimental Investigation of Saltation Characteristics of Particles near Channel Bed

Abstract

This paper studies the mechanical characteristics of saltation of bed-load particles in turbulent flows. Experiments have been carried out by means of high speed photography to obtain saltation characteristics such as length, height, velocity, impacting and rebounding angles for different hydraulic conditions, particle size, density and bed roughness by analyzing and processing pictures taken at 250 frames per second. The measured values of the parameters showed that increases in turbulence parameters of the flow increase saltation length, height, and velocity but decrease the impacting and rebounding angles. It was also found that saltation length and height tended to increase as the average size of the bed material (d50) increased. To solve numerical trajectory equations, the initial velocity component of the particle must be known. The initial longitudinal particle velocity was found to range from 3u* to 8u* and its vertical velocity ranged from 1.5u* to 3.5u*, which were different from the values reported in the literature. The longitudinal and vertical components of the restitution coefficient were also measured and it was seen that the Shields parameter (t*) had no meaningful effect on these components, remaining almost constant with increasing.

Keywords

• Turbulent flow
• Saltation
• Shear stress
• Bed Roughness
• Bed load