CHAPTER 4 BED-LOAD ‘TRANSPORT 4.1 INTRODUCTION When the flow conditions satisfy or exceed the criteria for incipient motion, sediment particles along an alluvial bed will start to move. If the motion of sediment particles is rolling, sliding, or sometimes jumping along the bed, it is called bed-load transport. Generally, the bed-load transport rate of a river is about 5-25% of that in suspension. However, for coarse materials, higher percentage of sediment may be transported as bed-load. Some of the classical formulas for sediment transport were derived mainly for bed-load. An introduction to the basic concepts or approaches used in these formulas is piven in this chapter. 4.2. SHEAR STRESS APPROACH 42.1 DuBoys’ Approach DuBoys (1879) assumed that sediment particles move in layers along the bed as shown in Fig. 4.1. These layers move because of tractive force acting along the bed. The thickness of each layer is ¢. Under equilibrium conditions, the tractive force should be balanced by the total resistance force between these layers, ie., += WS = Gmne(.~ 7), @y 90peuoap tRaNsrorr 91 (m= ayer om |. it 4h ”, { > ~ ; t FIGURE 41 Sketch of DuBoys' bed-load model iction covfficient, jotal number of layers, layer thickness, D=water depth, yhannel slope, and yy, and y= specific weights of sediment and water, respectively. If the velocity varies linearly between the first and mth layers, the tots bed-load discharge by volume per unit channel width is where q on yee any 2 where V, = velocity of the second layer, as shown in Fig. 4.1. At incipient motion, m = 1; then Eq. (4.1) becomes = Ce(%- 7) away and m=ct aay tical tractive force along the hed where 1. =2. seDINENT TRANSPORT ‘rom Eqs. (4.2) and (4.4), ev, dW “ae at — 1.) =Kr(t~%) 5) “he coeflicient K in Eq, (4.5) is related to the characteristics of the sediment sarticles. ub (1935) found that the K value in Eq. (4.5) is related to the particle ae do ie 0173 4,03 K = "Fay = 1/06?) (4.6) the & value in q. (4.6) is for Imperial (English) units, but the d value has to Thus, DuBoys’ equation becomes 0.173 =p Ut 4) = (BP/S)/Et (47) che relationship between 1,, K, and d is shown in Fig. 4.2, The value of 7, can ve determined from the Shields diagram. DuBoys’ equation is one of those classical equations that was later aodified and improved by different investigators. This equation was criticized aainly on two counts. All the data were obtained from.small laboratory flumes with a small range of particle size variation. 1. It is not clear whether Eq. (4.6) is applicable to field conditions. 2k Shields’ Approach 4G, 64 incipient motion, Guivids (1526) measured How consis scat transport greater than zevo, and then extended the relationship to ‘tain the flow condition corresponding to incipient motion. Thus, a semi- mpirical equation for bed-load is obtained, namely, ore as Gye in shere qy and q= bed-load and water discharge per unit channel width, respectively; t= DS, sediment particle diameter, and +» %= specific weights of water and sediment, respectively. iquation (4.8) is dimensionally homogeneous, and can be used for any system