RELATIONS FOR 1D BEDLOAD TRANSPORT

Let qb denote the volume bedload transport rate per unit width (sliding, rolling,
saltating). It is reasonable to assume that qb increases with a measure of flow
strength, such as depth-averaged flow velocity U or boundary shear stress b.

A dimensionless Einstein bedload number q* can be defined as follows:

 qb
q 
b
RgD D
A common and useful approach to the quantification of bedload transport is to
empirically relate qb* with either the Shields stress * or the excess of the Shields
stress * above some appropriately defined “critical” Shields stress c*. As pointed
out in the last chapter, c* can be defined appropriately so as to a) fit the data
and b) provide a useful demarcation of a range below which the bedload
transport rate is too low to be of interest.

The functional relation sought is thus of the form

qb  qb (  ) or qb  qb (   c ) 1

 BEDLOAD TRANSPORT RELATION OF MEYER-PETER AND MÜLLER
All the bedload relations in this chapter pertain to a flow condition known as “plane-
bed” transport, i.e. transport in the absence of significant bedforms. The influence
of bedforms on bedload transport rate will be considered in a later section.

The “mother of all modern bedload transport relations” is that due to Meyer-Peter
and Müller (1948) (MPM). It takes the form
qb  8(   c )3 / 2 , c  0.047
The relation was derived using flume data pertaining to well-sorted sediment in the
gravel sizes.

Recently Wong (2003) and Wong and Parker (2004) found an error in the analysis
of MPM. A re-analysis of all the data pertaining to plane-bed transport used by
MPM resulted in the corrected relation
qb  4.93 (   c )1.6 , c  0.047
If the exponent of 1.5 is retained, the best-fit relation is

qb  3.97 (   c )3 / 2 , c  0.0495 2

 Bedload Relation: Modified MPM

1.0E+00
qb* = 3.97 (* - c*)1.50
1.0E-01 c* = 0.0495

1.0E-02
qb*

1.0E-03

Data of Meyer-Peter and Muller (5.21 mm,

1.0E-04
28.65 mm) and Gilbert (3.17 mm, 4.94 mm,
7.01 mm)

1.0E-05
1.0E-02 1.0E-01 1.0E+00

* 3
 LIMITATIONS OF MPM
The “critical Shields stress” c* of either 0.047 or 0.0495 in either the original or
corrected MPM relation(s) must be considered as only a matter of convenience for
correlating the data. This can be demonstrated as follows.

Consider bankfull flow in a river. The bed shear stress at bankfull flow bbf can be
estimated from the depth-slope product rule of normal flow:
bbf  gHbf S
The corresponding Shields stress bf50* at bankfull flow is then estimated as
Hbf S
bf 50 
RDs50
where Ds50 denotes a surface median size. For the gravel-bed rivers, however, the
average value of bf50* was found to be about 0.05 (next page).

According to MPM, then, these rivers can barely move sediment of the surface
median size Ds50 at bankfull flow. Yet most such streams do move this size at
bankfull flow, and often in significant quantities.
4
 LIMITATIONS OF MPM contd.
1.E+01

1.E+00
gravel-bed streams

bf 50 1.E-01
Grav Brit
Grav Alta
Sand Mult
1.E-02
Sand Sing
Grav Ida
1.E-03
1.E+02 1.E+04 1.E+06 1.E+08 1.E+10 1.E+12 1.E+14

Q̂
There is nothing intrinsically “wrong” with MPM. In a dimensionless sense,
however, the flume data used to define it correspond to the very high end of the
transport events that normally occur during floods in alluvial gravel-bed streams.
While the relation is important in a historical sense, it is not the best relation to
use with gravel-bed streams. 5
 A SMORGASBORD OF BEDLOAD TRANSPORT RELATIONS FOR UNIFORM
SEDIMENT
Some commonly-quoted bedload transport relations with good data bases are given
below.

1 ( 0.143 /  ) 2 43 . 5 q
(0.143 /  )2
t 2
1 e dt  b
Einstein (1950)


1  43.5qb


qb  17   c    c ,  c  0.05 Ashida & Michiue (1972)


qb  18.74   c    0.7 c ,  c  0.05 Engelund & Fredsoe (1976)



q  5.7   
b

c 
 1.5
, c  0.037 ~ 0.0455 Fernandez Luque & van Beek (1976)

4.5
   

q  11.2 
b  
 1.5 1 
 
c



, c  0.03 Parker (1979) fit to
Einstein (1950) 6
 
 PLOTS OF BEDLOAD TRANSPORT RELATIONS

1.E+02
1.E+01
1.E+00
1.E-01
1.E-02 E
AM
1.E-03 EF
qb *

1.E-04 E = Einstein FLBSand

AM = Ashida-Michiue P approx E
1.E-05 EF = Engelund-Fredsoe FLBGrav
1.E-06 P approx E = Parker approx of Einstein
FLBSand = Fernandez Luque-van
1.E-07 Beek, c* = 0.038
1.E-08 FLBGrav = Fernandez Luque-van
Beek, c* = 0.0455
1.E-09
0.01 0.1 1
7
*
 NOTES ON THE BEDLOAD TRANSPORT RELATIONS
 The bedload relation of Einstein (1950) contains no critical Shields number. This
reflects his probabilistic philosophy.
 All of the relations except that of Einstein correspond to a relation of the form
qb ~ (  )3 / 2
In the limit of high Shields number. In dimensioned form this becomes
3/2
qb  u2  Rgq b
 K  or 3
K
RgD D  RgD  u

where K is a constant; for example in the case of Ashida-Michiue, K = 17. Note

that in this limit the bedload transport rate becomes independent of grain size!!
 Some of the scatter between the relations is due to the face that c* should be a
function of Rep. This is reflected in the discussion of the Fernandez Luque-van
Beek relation in the next slide. (Recall that Re p  RgD D / .)
 Some of the scatter is also due to the fact that several of the relations have been
plotted well outside of the data used to derive them. For example, in data used
to derive Fernandez Luque-van Beek, * never exceeded 0.11, whereas 8
the plot extends to * = 1.
 NOTES ON THE RELATION OF FERNANDEZ LUQUE AND VAN BEEK

In the experiments on which the relation is based;

a) Streamwise bed slope angle  varied from near 0 to 22.

b) The material tested included five grain sizes and three specific gravities, as
given below; also listed are the values of Rep and the critical Shields number co*
determined empirically at near vanishing bed slope angle.

Material D mm R Rep co*

Walnut shells 1.5 0.34 106 0.038
Sand1 0.9 1.64 108 0.038
Sand2 1.8 1.64 306 0.037
Gravel 3.3 1.64 760 0.0455
Magnetite 1.8 3.58 453 0.042

c) It is thus possible to check the effect of Rep and  on the transport relation of
Fernandez Luque and van Beek (FLvB).
9
 CRITICAL SHIELDS NUMBER IN THE RELATION OF FLvB
The experimental values of co* generally track the modified Shields relation, but are
high by a factor ~ 2. This reflects the fact that they correspond to a condition of “very
small” transport determined in a consistent way (see original reference).
0.05

0.045
. 0.04

0.035

0.03
Data of FLvB
co*

0.025
Modified Shields Curve
0.02

0.015

0.01 ( 7.7 Rep0.6 )

c  0.5 [0.22 Rep0.6  0.06  10 ]
0.005

0
10 100 1000 10
Rep
 CRITICAL SHIELDS NUMBER IN THE RELATION OF FLvB contd.
The ratio c*/co* decreases with streamwise angle  as predicted by the relation of
Chapter 6, but to obtain good agreement r must be set to the rather high value of
47 (c = 1.07).
1.1

1
.
0.9
Observed
0.8
Predicted
c*/co*

0.7
c tan 
 cos (1  )
0.6 co c
0.5

0.4
0 5 10 15 20 25 30

 11
 CALCULATIONS WITH BEDLOAD TRANSPORT RELATIONS
To perform calculations with any of the previous bedload transport relations, it is
necessary to specify:
1) the submerged specific gravity R of the sediment;
2) a representative grain size exposed on the bed surface, e.g. surface
geometric mean size Dsg or surface median size Ds50, to be used as the
characteristic size D in the relation;
3) and a value for the shear velocity of the flow u* (and thus b).

Once these parameters are specified, * = (u*)2/(RgD) is computed, qb* is

calculated from the bedload transport relation, and the volume bedload
transport rate per unit width is computed as qb = (RgD)1/2Dqb*.

The shear velocity u* is computed from the flow field using the techniques of
previous Chapter . For example, in the case of normal flow satisfying the
Manning-Strickler resistance relation,
3 / 10
k q1/ 3 2

3 / 10
 k 1/ 3 2
s qw
 S7 / 10
u  
2 s w
 g7 / 10S7 / 10    2 


 r g 

 
2 RD
r  12
 ALTERNATIVE DIMENSIONLESS BEDLOAD TRANSPORT
Again, the case under consideration is plane-bed bedload transport (no bedforms).
As a preliminary, define a dimensionless sediment transport rate W* as
 qb Rgq
W   3/2  3 b
( ) u
Now all previously presented bedload transport rates for uniform sediment can be
rewritten in terms of W* as a function of *:
1 ( 0.143 /  ) 2 43.5 (  )3 / 2 W 
(0.143 /  )2 e dt  1  43.5 ( )3 / 2 W 
t2
1 Einstein (1950)


 c   c  Ashida & Michiue (1972)

W  171    1   , c  0.05


     

 c   c  Engelund & Fredsoe (1976)

W  18.741    1  0.7  , c  0.05


     
1.5
 c  Fernandez Luque & van Beek (1976)
W  5.71   

, c  0.037 ~ 0.0455
  
4.5
 c  Parker (1979) fit to
W  11.2 1   

, c  0.03 13
 s  Einstein (1950)
 COMPUTATIONS OF ANNUAL BEDLOAD YIELD
It is necessary to have a flow duration curve to perform the calculation. The flow duration
curve specifies the fraction of time a given water discharge is exceeded, as a function of
water discharge.

This curve is divided into M bins k = 1 to M, such that pQk specifies the fraction of time the
flow is in range k with characteristic discharge Qk. The value u*k must be computed for each
range. For example, in the case of normal flow with constant width B, the Manning-Strickler
resistance relation from previous Chapter yields
3 / 10
 k1s/ 3Qk2 
u2,k   2 2  g7 / 10S7 / 10
 B r 
The grain size distribution of the bed material must be specified; ks can be computed as 2
Ds90 (for a plane bed). Once u*,k is computed, either qb,k (material approximated as uniform)
or qbi,k (mixtures) is computed for each flow range, and the annual sediment yield qba or total
yield qbTa and grain size fractions of the yield pai are given as
M

M N
M  q bi,k pQk
qba   qb,kpQk or qbTa     qbi,kpQk  , pai  k 1

i1  k 1 
N
M

k 1
   bi,k Qk 

i1  k 1
q p

Expect the flood flows to contribute disproportionately to the annual sediment yield. 14
An implementation is given in “Acronym1_D” of Rte-bookAcronym1.xls .
 REFERENCES

Ashida, K. and M. Michiue, 1972, Study on hydraulic resistance and bedload transport rate in
alluvial streams, Transactions, Japan Society of Civil Engineering, 206: 59-69 (in Japanese).
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249, 235-297.
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Ph.D. thesis, Technical University of Delft, the Netherlands, 246 p.
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p. 15
 REFERENCES contd.
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Congress, International Association of Hydraulic Research, Stockholm: 39-64.
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