Hydrodynamic Forces Generated on a Spherical Sediment

Particle during Entrainment

Ambuj Dwivedi1; Bruce Melville, M.ASCE2; and Asaad Y. Shamseldin3

Abstract: The objective of this research is to study the relationship between the coherent flow structures and the hydrodynamic forces
leading to entrainment of a spherical bed sediment particle for a rough bed uniform turbulent flow. Two types of experiments, namely,
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by University of South Florida on 06/13/13. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.

movable and fixed balls, were conducted using spherical roughness-element beds with particle image velocimetry to measure the instan-
taneous flow-velocity field. Miniature piezoelectric pressure sensors were used to capture the instantaneous pressure on the surface of the
sphere. Movable ball experiments reveal the predominance of large sweep structures at the instant of entrainment. Fixed ball experiments
carried out at entrainment conditions show the importance of both vertical and horizontal pressure gradients on the ball leading to
entrainment. Probability distribution function plots of pressures based on quadrant analysis of velocities also reveal the higher probability
of occurrence of high magnitude force induced by sweep 共Q4兲 events.
DOI: 10.1061/共ASCE兲HY.1943-7900.0000247
CE Database subject headings: Hydrodynamics; Drag; Sediment; Entrainment.
Author keywords: Flow structure; Particle entrainment; Hydrodynamic forces; Drag; Lift; Protrusion.

Introduction particle to the flow, which is related to the particle protrusion

Concerted efforts have been made in the past 8 decades to under-
stand the mechanics of the movement of sediment in running
water and the attempts made to apply this knowledge to solve
various related problems such as flooding, meandering, silting of
reservoirs, degradation, aggradation, local scour, stable channel
design, and navigation. Despite these efforts, the precise determi-
nation of the criterion that identifies the flow conditions respon-
sible for sediment movement remains elusive.
Sediment entrainment in a turbulent flow is a complex process.
Entrainment is taken here to mean the first detected particle mo-
tion, which results in the particle moving out of the recess formed
by neighboring particles. Previous laboratory experiments, using
stones and spheres as roughness elements 共Cameron 2006;
Hofland 2005兲, have shown that entrainment is a sporadic event
and is related to the variability of flow.
The sources of variability with respect to entrainment are as-
sociated with bed geometry and the flow. Variability associated
with the bed is due to pocket geometry and friction angle, which
affect particle resistance to entrainment 共e.g., Buffington et al.
1992; Johnston et al. 1998兲, and to the exposure of an individual
1
Graduate Student, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
The Univ. of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand 共cor-
responding author兲. E-mail: adwi001@aucklanduni.auckland.ac.nz
2
Professor, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Univ.
of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand. E-mail:
b.melville@auckland.ac.nz
3
Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The
Univ. of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand. E-mail:
a.shamseldin@auckland.ac.nz
Note. This manuscript was submitted on July 7, 2008; approved on
March 29, 2010; published online on April 7, 2010. Discussion period
open until March 1, 2011; separate discussions must be submitted for
individual papers. This paper is part of the Journal of Hydraulic Engi-
neering, Vol. 136, No. 10, October 1, 2010. ©ASCE, ISSN 0733-9429/
2010/10-756–769/$25.00.
effects 共e.g., Fenton and Abbott 1977; Chin 1985兲.
The variability associated with the flow is due to local flow
turbulence structures, which are termed coherent flow structures.
The adjective “coherent” is used because these flow structures are
repeating and organized in the near-bed region of fluid flows
共Kline et al. 1967兲. Statistically, these coherent flow structures
can be defined according to quadrant analysis, which involves the
decomposition of Reynolds stress into four quadrants 共Q1 – Q4兲
based on the signs of the velocity component fluctuations u⬘
共streamwise兲 and w⬘ 共vertical兲. Quadrant Q1 is characterized by
u⬘ ⬎ 0 , w⬘ ⬎ 0, quadrant Q2 by u⬘ ⬍ 0 , w⬘ ⬎ 0, quadrant Q3 by
u⬘ ⬍ 0 , w⬘ ⬍ 0, and quadrant Q4 by u⬘ ⬎ 0 , w⬘ ⬍ 0, where for the
streamwise components, u⬘ = u − ū, u = instantaneous velocity, ū
= mean velocity, and u⬘ = fluctuation of the instantaneous velocity
from the mean. Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4 correspond to outward inter-
actions, ejections, inward interactions, and sweeps, respectively.
Many researchers have related the movement of sediment par-
ticles to specific turbulent-flow structures, based on quadrant
analysis, and have tried to explain phenomena such as particle
uplift from the bed in view of the existence of these structures.
Sumer and Deigaard 共1981兲, Rashidi et al. 共1990兲, and Ninto and
Garcia 共1996兲 provided the first experimental evidence of the in-
fluence of coherent structures on the incipient movement of solid
particles. Cleaver and Yates 共1976兲, Sumer and Deigaard 共1981兲,
Grass 共1983兲, Dyer and Soulsby 共1988兲, Rashidi et al. 共1990兲,
Ninto and Garcia 共1996兲, and Kaftori and Hetsroni 共1998兲 sug-
gested that sweeps cause the initiation of sediment motion.
Nelson et al. 共1995兲 supported the opinion that sweeps 共i.e., Q4
events兲 are not the only events responsible for bed-load transport
of gravel; they found that outward interactions 共Q1兲 are also re-
sponsible. Nelson et al. 共1995兲 clearly showed that when the mag-
nitude of the outward interactions increases comparatively to the
other events of a bursting cycle, the sediment flux increases too,
although the magnitude of the Reynolds stress decreases.
Hofland 共2005兲 used a 15-Hz particle image velocimetry 共PIV兲
system to measure the flow field over a 30-mm instrumented tar-

756 / JOURNAL OF HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING © ASCE / OCTOBER 2010

J. Hydraul. Eng. 2010.136:756-769.

 p2 e
FL
p1 p3
Flow FD

p4
WS
Flume bed

Fig. 2. Enlarged view of the target sphere, fitted with three pressure
Flume recess
transducers attached to the sphere, with the remaining transducer
positioned below the sphere

Fig. 1. Hydrodynamic forces on a spherical sediment particle as sure above it, a high lift event will occur. Raudkivi 共1990兲 postu-
viewed from the side of the flume lated that even sheltered particles could be entrained by this
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by University of South Florida on 06/13/13. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.

mechanism. A high drag event will occur if there is a high pres-

get particle in a gravel bed during actual entrainment. From their
experiments, they concluded that the particle movement was as-
sociated with periods of high streamwise velocity, with the initial
movement often caused by fluctuating vertical velocities. The
fluctuating vertical velocities were found to be associated with
clockwise vortices 共ejection兲. Cameron 共2006兲 conducted 100-Hz,
two-dimensional PIV measurements using 40-mm-diameter
spherical particles as roughness elements. He concluded that the
start of particle motion corresponds to the tail end of the hairpin
vortex and the high streamwise velocity reaching the particle. In
contrast to Hofland 共2005兲, where ejection flow events were indi-
cated to provide the initial particle uplift before a sweep entrain-
ment, Cameron’s 共2006兲 entrainment experiments did not indicate
an ejection flow event. Rather, the particle started to move only
when a sweep flow structure reached the particle. Detert 共2008兲
carried out experiments in a laboratory flume using 4-Hz PIV,
roughened with spheres of diameter of 25.4 mm. In a streamwise
vertical plane, large-scale wedgelike flow structures were ob-
served, where in the sense of a sweep event, a zone of faster fluid
over-rolls a zone with slower fluid.
As noted above, various researchers have correlated near-bed
turbulence structures with sediment flux. While this provides sup-
port for the hypothesis that the details of near-bed turbulence
structures are important for predicting entrainment and motion, it
does not make a direct link between the flow structures and fluid
forces on the sediment grains making up the bed. The goal of this
paper is to provide some information on that more direct linkage.
In the next paragraph, we discuss how these structures can affect
the lift and drag forces and cause entrainment.
Coherent flow structures impose rapid and significant pressure
fluctuations on the bed. In turbulent flows, these fluctuations are
considered to have a significant influence on the entrainment of
sediment particles from the bed. For example, if the local flow
structure produces a high pressure below the grain, and low pres-
sure upstream of the particle and low pressure downstream of it.
Therefore, indicators of drag and lift events can be obtained by
measuring the pressure above and below, and upstream and
downstream of a sediment particle.
Fig. 1 shows the hydrodynamic forces acting on a single
spherical sediment particle. In this figure, FL is the lift force, FD is
the drag force, WS is the submerged weight of the particle, and e
is the protrusion of the particle above the top of the surrounding
particles 共see Fig. 2兲.
As shown in Fig. 2, p⬘1, p⬘2, p⬘3, and p⬘4 are the fluctuating
components of the instantaneous pressures on the surface of the
sphere at locations upstream of, above, downstream of, and below
the particle. The high values of the instantaneous pressure differ-
ences D⬘ = p1⬘ − p3⬘ and L⬘ = p4⬘ − p2⬘ based on point pressure mea-
surements can be used as quantitative indicators of high “drag”
force and high “lift” force, respectively, because they are mea-
sured at points where high positive and negative pressures are
expected to occur. The contribution of shear stress to total drag is
assumed to be of minor importance in this study as Wang 共1999兲
showed that the wall shear stress fluctuations contribute negligi-
bly to the unsteady drag forces on a sphere compared to the
surface pressure fluctuations in a steady uniform flow in the range
3 , 000ⱕ Reⱕ 370, 000.
A particle may be entrained if the instantaneous fluctuating
pressure difference L⬘ = 共p⬘4 − p⬘2兲 is large relative to the mean pres-
sure difference, i.e., when the pressure at the bottom of the sphere
is increased and that at the top is decreased relative to their mean
values. In a similar manner, high values of the instantaneous pres-
sure difference 共p1⬘ − p3⬘兲 may induce or aid entrainment.
Experimental Setup
The experiments were designed to examine the hydrodynamic
forces acting on a sediment particle and the roles of coherent flow

Table 1. Flow Configuration

e H ␯ ⫻ 10−6 Ū uⴱ
共mm兲 共mm兲 Sb ⫻ 10−3 共m2 / s兲 共m/s兲 R ⫻ 103 共m/s兲 Dⴱ ␪c Fr
17 187 1.410 0.984 0.401 160.4 0.047 404.4 0.049 0.296
17 187 1.410 0.984 0.405 162.0 0.048 404.4 0.051 0.299
17 187 1.410 0.984 0.394 157.6 0.047 404.4 0.049 0.291
17 187 1.410 0.984 0.398 159.2 0.047 404.4 0.049 0.294
11 187 1.985 0.984 0.563 225.2 0.055 404.4 0.067 0.416
11 187 1.985 0.984 0.575 230.0 0.052 404.4 0.060 0.425
11 187 1.985 0.984 0.568 227.2 0.055 404.4 0.067 0.419
11 187 1.985 0.984 0.570 228.0 0.055 404.4 0.067 0.421

JOURNAL OF HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING © ASCE / OCTOBER 2010 / 757

J. Hydraul. Eng. 2010.136:756-769.

 Table 2. Local Velocities for Entrainment group of movable spheres 共7 long, 3 wide, and 1 deep兲 was filled
e ū uc w̄ wc with plaster, so that they would remain in place under their own
共mm兲 共m/s兲 共m/s兲 共m/s兲 共m/s兲 uc2 / ⌬gD weight.
The movable spheres allowed flexibility for a lightweight en-
17 0.309 0.429 0.001 ⴚ0.04 3.9
trainable target particle to be added. The target particle, located 4
17 0.307 0.419 0.000 ⫺0.03 3.7 m downstream from the start of the spherical roughness section,
17 0.305 0.485 0.000 ⴚ0.05 4.9 had a diameter of 38.3 mm and was made of polyurethane, with a
17 0.308 0.410 0.001 ⫺0.001 3.6 density of 1.12 g / cm3. The target particle could be placed to
11 0.414 0.576 0.009 ⴚ0.078 7.0 protrude above the surrounding spheres by placing a smaller di-
11 0.436 0.618 0.001 ⫺0.068 8.1 ameter sphere beneath it 共Fig. 2兲.
11 0.425 0.610 0.002 ⴚ0.088 7.9 Two types of experiments were undertaken, using a movable
11 0.420 0.595 0.004 ⫺0.051 7.5 and a fixed ball, respectively. The fixed particle was fitted with
the three pressure sensors as discussed earlier. It was not possible
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by University of South Florida on 06/13/13. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.

to attach a pressure sensor to the movable particle, the latter being

structures in the process of particle entrainment. Experiments
were carried out using spherical particle beds as roughness ele-
ments, with PIV used to measure the instantaneous flow-velocity
field.
The 0.43-m-wide by 0.3-m-deep glass-sided recirculating
flume used in the present experiments is 11.8 m long. The flume
contains a 0.26-m-deep and 0.90-m-long recess section situated
7.0 m downstream from the start of the open channel section. A
5.5-m length of the water flume was covered by a layer of
39.7-mm average diameter spheres glued to aluminum sheets in a
hexagonal close-packed structure. The particle bed, comprising
one layer of fixed spheres over most of the bed, was increased to
three layers of spheres over a 1-m length in the flume recess 共see
Fig. 1兲. In the center of the increased thickness test section, a
used to capture the flow structure responsible for entrainment. In
this case, the bottom pressure sensor was attached to a particle in
the second layer of fixed particles immediately below the target
particle, as shown in Fig. 2, allowing measurement of the pressure
fluctuations below the sediment particle during its entrainment.
For the fixed target particle experiments, the fluctuations in pres-
sure above and below, and upstream and downstream of the par-
ticle were measured as well as the flow field. This setup provided
information on the influence of the flow structure on the fluctua-
tions of the drag and lift forces acting on the sphere.
Honeywell piezoresistive transducers 共24PCE series兲 were
used for the differential pressure measurements. One side of the
transducer was connected to atmospheric pressure and the other
side to the point on the surface of the sphere at which the pressure

Fig. 3. Time series of instantaneous streamwise and vertical velocities, pressure fluctuations of the bottom sensor, and particle elevation during
entrainment 共Run 1, e = 17 mm兲

758 / JOURNAL OF HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING © ASCE / OCTOBER 2010

J. Hydraul. Eng. 2010.136:756-769.

Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by University of South Florida on 06/13/13. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.
Fig. 4. Time series of instantaneous streamwise and vertical velocities, pressure fluctuations of the bottom sensor, and particle elevation during
entrainment 共Run 2, e = 17 mm兲
was to be measured. Due to signal conditioning by the purpose-
built amplifier, the guaranteed maximum measurable frequency is
100 Hz. To avoid aliasing effects, the measurements were done at
a rate of 500 Hz. Measurements were performed simultaneously
using the four pressure sensors.
PIV was used to record the flow velocities, using the scanning-
beam technique to generate up to 200 PIV images per second.
The light source is a frequency-doubled 5-W continuous window
共CW兲 Nd: YVO4 laser 共Spectra-Physics Millenia, www.newport.
com兲, which has a wavelength of 532 nm. An iterative
continuous-window-shift, cross-correlation algorithm with a lin-
ear velocity-gradient correction was used. Cross correlation was
performed using the fast Fourier transform method, and the cor-
relation peak location was estimated with a three-point Gaussian
function. The PIV light sheet entered the water through a stream-
lined window, which skimmed the water surface to prevent scat-
tering of the laser beam due to water surface undulations. The
motion of the movable sphere was recorded in the same images as
the flow field patterns. The position of the target particle was
detected at the same time as cross-correlation processing of flow
velocities using a technique similar to the intensity-gradient-based
Canny edge detector 共Canny 1986兲.
The software for PIV image analysis calculates approximately
2.5 vector maps per second using a two-pass discrete window-
shift algorithm, and 0.11 vector maps per second using the four-
pass continuous-window-shift shear-corrected algorithm 共based
on 59⫻ 59 vectors per frame and a 2.0-GHz Athlon64 processor兲.
The present PIV velocity estimates have a random error compo-
nent of ⬍ ⫾ 0.2 pixels, which is equivalent to ⫾0.014 m/s based
JOURNAL OF HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING © ASCE / OCTOBER 2010 / 759
J. Hydraul. Eng. 2010.136:756-769.
on the typical pixel/mm calibrations used in this study. The bias
error associated with nonuniform beam scan velocity, lens distor-
tion, and refraction at the fluid-air interface velocity component is
less than ⫾1% 共Cameron 2006兲.
This study considers rough-boundary flows of relative submer-
gence, H / D = 4.67, where H is flow depth and D is particle diam-
eter. In line with the indications of literature 共e.g., Einstein and
El-Samni 1949; Chin 1985兲, the origin 共z = 0兲 of the beds of
spherical particles is taken at 0.2D below the particle tops. The
experiments were undertaken for a range of flow Reynolds num-
ber 共Re= ŪH / ␯, where Ū = depth-averaged streamwise velocity
and ␯ = kinematic viscosity兲 from 160⫻ 103 to 228⫻ 103 and with
grain-size Reynolds number 共Rⴱ = uⴱD / ␯, where uⴱ = shear veloc-
ity兲 ranging from 1,800 to 2,200 indicating fully rough turbulent
flows.
The applicability of this study can be extended to prototype
scales using similarity laws relevant to sediment entrainment such
that a range of flow depth, particle size, and slope can be modeled
共refer to the Appendix兲.
The experiments were performed under uniform flow condi-
tions for two different particle exposures, e = 17 mm and e
= 11 mm. The exposure e is the distance between the top of the
target particle and the top of the surrounding particles, as shown
in Fig. 2. Movable ball experiments began by incrementally ad-
justing flume slope, pump speed, and the overflow water level to
determine the flume settings that caused particle entrainment to
occur approximately once every 2 min for uniform flow at the
required flow depth. Flow depth was measured using a pointer
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by University of South Florida on 06/13/13. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.
Fig. 5. Time series of instantaneous streamwise and vertical velocities, pressure fluctuations of the bottom sensor, and particle elevation during
entrainment 共Run 1, e = 11 mm兲
gauge attached to a carriage on top of the flume, and the flume
slope was measured from a gauge on the side of the flume. The
uniformity of the flow was ascertained by measuring the flow
depth at two positions along the flume 2.5 m apart. With the flume
settings determined, the particle was placed back in its cavity. The
PIV system was aligned with the flume centerline and the center
of the target particle to capture streamwise and vertical velocity
components, and left running until the particle was entrained
naturally by the flow. Short PIV records 共⬍30 s兲 were discarded,
and longer records were trimmed with just the last 30 s prior to
entrainment retained for analysis. Pressure recordings were syn-
chronized with PIV recordings. Four runs were carried out for
each protrusion of the particle, which was sufficient to ensure
consistency of the results.
The fixed ball experiments were carried out at entrainment
conditions 共similar to movable ball experiments兲 consisting of
5-min synchronous pressure and velocity recording for each pro-
trusion. Table 1 shows the flow conditions obtained from the fixed
ball experiments, in which the variables are flow depth 共H兲, bed
surface slope 共Sb兲, fluid kinematic viscosity 共␯兲, depth-averaged
streamwise velocity 共Ū兲, flow Reynolds number 共Re兲, critical
shear velocity 共uⴱc兲, dimensionless particle size 共Dⴱ = D关g共Ss
− 1兲 / ␯2兴1/3兲, critical Shields parameter 共␪c兲, Froude number 共Fr兲,
particle size 共D兲, and specific gravity of sediment 共Ss兲. The criti-
cal shear velocity was determined from the slope of the logarith-
mic velocity profile from fixed ball experiments at the
entrainment condition.
760 / JOURNAL OF HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING © ASCE / OCTOBER 2010
J. Hydraul. Eng. 2010.136:756-769.
Results and Discussion
The time-averaged local velocities 共ū, streamwise velocities and
w̄, vertical velocities兲, instantaneous critical local velocities
共uc , wc兲, and the ratio of inertia force per unit area 共⬀␳u2c 兲 to
submerged weight of the particle per unit area 关共Ss − 1兲␥D兴 for
each experiment are listed in Table 2, where the critical velocities
correspond to those occurring at 共⫺30 mm, 6 mm兲 at the time of
first detected particle movement. The data shown in bold in Table
2 are those plotted in the figures included below. Although the
other data are not included in the plots due to space limitations,
they showed the same trends.
Figs. 3–6 show local velocity time series, for two runs 共shown
in bold in Table 1兲 at each protrusion. The velocity data were
extracted from the PIV flow field records at a point 共⫺30 mm, 6
mm兲, relative to the top center of the target particle. This location
is only 0.75D upstream of the target particle, so that the instan-
taneous velocity measurements are representative of velocities in
the vicinity of the particle, but not so close that the velocities are
affected by the presence of the particle. The velocity measuring
location at 0.15D above the top of the particle was chosen be-
cause Xingkui and Fontijn 共1993兲 found maximum correlation
between the instantaneous velocity at this height and the drag
force. Einstein and El-Samni 共1949兲 also found a constant CL 共lift
coefficient兲 for different flow velocities at this height. The red
colored plus sign in vector plots of Figs. 7–10 shows the velocity
measuring location. Each time series shows the streamwise 共u兲
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by University of South Florida on 06/13/13. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.
Fig. 6. Time series of instantaneous streamwise and vertical velocities, pressure fluctuations of the bottom sensor, and particle elevation during
entrainment 共Run 2, e = 11 mm兲
and vertical 共w兲 velocity components prior to entrainment at time
t = 0. Time-averaged streamwise 共ū兲 and vertical velocities 共w̄兲 are
shown by dotted lines in these figures. The time of particle en-
trainment is determined by examining the records of particle el-
evation versus time, extracted from PIV images, and tracing
entrainment events back to the time of first detected vertical
particle movement. Figs. 3–6 show that critical streamwise
velocities are significantly higher than time-averaged streamwise
velocities 共uc ⬎ ū兲 and critical vertical velocities are lower than
time-averaged vertical velocities 共wc ⬍ w̄兲, suggesting that en-
trainment velocities are associated with Q4 sweep events. This
finding is consistent with the experimental results of
Hofland 共2005兲, Cameron 共2006兲, and Detert 共2008兲 for the par-
ticles of sizes 40, 30, and 25.4 mm, respectively. The ratio ␪ms
= u2c / ⌬gD shown in Table 2 increases with decrease in exposures
suggesting that higher entrainment velocities 共hence higher iner-
tial force兲 are needed for entraining the particles with low expo-
sures.
Figs. 7–10 show spliced images consisting of 25 consecutive
images just before entrainment in each case. From top to bottom,
contours of u⬘, w⬘, and vector field plots are plotted in these
figures. Entrainment of the particle is found to coincide with the
occurrence of an intense sweep event in these figures. The size of
these sweep events, identified visually, is 2 – 4D in the streamwise
direction and 0.5– 1D in stream-normal direction. Detert 共2008兲,
Cameron 共2006兲, and Hofland 共2005兲 reported similar findings in
recently concluded studies in a bed of comparable roughness size
to the present experiments. The same large-scale flow structures
JOURNAL OF HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING © ASCE / OCTOBER 2010 / 761
J. Hydraul. Eng. 2010.136:756-769.
were identified at entrainment in the remaining four sets of ex-
perimental results suggesting their importance in the entrainment
process.
At the instant of entrainment, the destabilizing forces on the
particle must equal the stabilizing forces. The destabilizing forces
are lift and drag forces. The lift is generated by the pressure
difference between the top and the bottom of the grain. The lift
force on the particle is a maximum when there is low pressure at
the top of the particle and high pressure at the bottom of the
particle. The occurrence of a sweep event, that is, high-speed fluid
moving toward the bed, may decrease the pressure at the top of
particle as well as creating high pressure at the bottom of the
particle in the form of stagnation pressure. At the same time, this
event creates large drag force due to high pressure at the front of
the particle and low pressure behind it.
Figs. 3–6 also show the time series of pressure measured
below the particle during entrainment. At the time of entrainment,
the increased pressure below the particle is found to coincide with
the occurrence of sweep events in each case. This indicates that
sweep events are probably responsible for inducing destabilizing
lift on the particle, as discussed above. The pressure at the bottom
of the particle for e = 11 mm is four to five times higher than that
for e = 17 mm, indicating that higher lift force is required for
entrainment of particles at lower protrusion. This might be be-
cause of higher mean flow and critical shear stress for lower
exposure of the particle 共see Table 1兲. The pressure signals for the
lower exposure 共Figs. 5 and 6兲 show that the high pressure below
the sphere lasts significantly longer than that for the more ex-
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by University of South Florida on 06/13/13. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.

Fig. 7. 共Color兲 Contours of u⬘ 共top兲, w⬘ 共middle兲, and vector plots of u⬘, w⬘ 共bottom兲 at entrainment 共Run 1, e = 11 mm兲

posed particle. This implies that the duration, as well as the mag-
nitude of the applied hydrodynamic forces, is important, the more
so for the particles with less exposure and hence impulse might be
an important parameter in entrainment studies as proposed by
Diplas et al. 共2008兲.
The first series of entrainment experiments, with the movable
particle, provides information about the pressure below the target
particle and the flow structure at the time of movement. The ex-
periments using the fixed spheres provide pressure measurements
at points upstream of, downstream of, above, and below the target
particle. In the following discussion, these data are used to show
how drag and lift forces on sediment particles vary during differ-
ent flow events 共Q1 – Q4兲.
Fig. 11 shows the pressure measurements above 共p⬘2兲 and
below 共p⬘4兲 the fixed particle for the period from 19 to 20.45 s
during the experiment for e = 11 mm. The measurements shown
in Fig. 11 span a period when each of the Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4
events occurred. Also shown in the figure is the pressure differ-
ence between points in front of and behind the particle 共p⬘1 − p⬘3兲. A

762 / JOURNAL OF HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING © ASCE / OCTOBER 2010

J. Hydraul. Eng. 2010.136:756-769.

Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by University of South Florida on 06/13/13. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.

Fig. 8. 共Color兲 Contours of u⬘ 共top兲, w⬘ 共middle兲, and vector plots of u⬘, w⬘ 共bottom兲 at entrainment 共Run 2, e = 11 mm兲

vertical downward velocity of about 0.1 m/s and an instantaneous
streamwise velocity significantly higher than the mean local
streamwise velocity at t = 19.33 s are indicative of a sweep event.
At this instant 共t = 19.33 s兲, an increased pressure 共60 N / m2兲 at
the bottom and a negative pressure 共25 N / m2兲 at the top of the
particle are observed resulting in a total “lift” pressure of approxi-
mately 85 N / m2, i.e., 关60− 共−25兲兴 N / m2, the submerged weight
of the particle being 0.0346 N. Teruzzi et al. 共2009兲 showed that
the lift force due to vertical pressure gradient is significant in the
entrainment process when it is comparable with the immersed
weight of the sediment. The quantity ⳵ p / ⳵z / 兵␳g共Ss − 1兲其 is equal
to 1.88 at the instant t = 19.33 s. It may also be noted that the
streamwise pressure difference between the upstream and down-
stream measurement points 共p⬘1 − p⬘3兲 shows a peak value exceed-
ing 100 N / m2 at the same instant, confirming the capability of
sweep events to entrain the particle by both drag and lift.
For a shear velocity of 0.055 m/s 共Table 2兲 for 11-mm expo-
sure, the shear stress is 3.02 N / m2, which is only 3.02% of D⬘
共p⬘1 − p⬘3 = 100 N / m2兲 at t = 19.33 s implying that skin friction

JOURNAL OF HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING © ASCE / OCTOBER 2010 / 763

J. Hydraul. Eng. 2010.136:756-769.

Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by University of South Florida on 06/13/13. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.

Fig. 9. 共Color兲 Contours of u⬘ 共top兲, w⬘ 共middle兲, and vector plots of u⬘, w⬘ 共bottom兲 at entrainment 共Run 1, e = 17 mm兲

drag due to shear is relatively small compared to the wake-
induced form drag 共Hofland 2005兲. Also, Constantinescu and
Squires 共2003兲 using large eddy simulation and detached eddy
simulation studies of hydrodynamic forces on a sphere found that
the contribution of skin friction to total drag is only 8.5% at
Reynolds number 1 ⫻ 104, reducing to 5.5% at higher Reynolds
number.
As discussed above and demonstrated in Figs. 7–10, a sweep
event was found to occur for each experiment during particle
entrainment. This flow structure produces a favorable condition
for the particle to be lifted up and then entrained by drag force.
An outward interaction at time t = 19.52 s 共Fig. 11兲 features re-
duced pressure above and below the particle but such events can-
not entrain the particle because of insufficient uplift. Inward
interaction and ejection events alone are not capable of entraining
the particle because of reduced drag due to reduced streamwise
velocity as can be seen in Fig. 11. Also, the pressure below and
above the particle is too low to entrain the particle during Q3 and
Q2 events.
In order to investigate the role of coherent flow structures re-

764 / JOURNAL OF HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING © ASCE / OCTOBER 2010

J. Hydraul. Eng. 2010.136:756-769.

Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by University of South Florida on 06/13/13. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.

Fig. 10. 共Color兲 Contours of u⬘ 共top兲, w⬘ 共middle兲, and vector plots of u⬘, w⬘ 共bottom兲 at entrainment 共Run 2, e = 17 mm兲

sponsible for entrainment, probabilistic analysis of drag for e
= 17 mm and lift force for e = 11 mm was carried out. The pres-
sure time histories were subjected to quadrant analysis based on
the sign of u⬘ and w⬘ fluctuations. Probability distribution func-
tion 共pdf兲 plots of the sorted force time history data are shown in
Fig. 12, both in normal and logarithmic scales 共to visualize the
probability of extreme forces兲. The extreme forces responsible for
entrainment mainly corresponded to the occurrence of Q4 events
due to their higher probability of occurrence as seen in the log
plots 关Figs. 12共b and d兲兴 for both exposures. This complements
the observation made earlier in the movable ball experiments
共Figs. 7 and 10兲 regarding the predominance of sweep events
responsible for entrainment. As seen in Figs. 12共a and c兲, the pdfs
of the forces corresponding to the Q4 events are skewed posi-
tively, implying that the mean forces corresponding to the Q4
events are higher than the other events with the exception of the

JOURNAL OF HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING © ASCE / OCTOBER 2010 / 765

J. Hydraul. Eng. 2010.136:756-769.

Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by University of South Florida on 06/13/13. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.
Fig. 11. Time series of instantaneous pressure and velocity on a fixed particle; the velocity is measured at a point 共⫺30 mm, 6 mm兲 relative to
the top center of the target particle
extreme values. This suggests that Q4 events have a higher prob-
ability of generating the impulse required for entrainment through
an optimum combination of force and duration.
The pdfs of the hydrodynamic forces 共drag and lift兲 corre-
sponding to Q2 events are negatively skewed and show a higher
probability of occurrence of forces of magnitude less than the
mean. The mean and extreme values of forces corresponding to
events Q1 and Q3 have lower probability of occurrence and hence
are of little importance in sediment entrainment.
Conclusions
Flow field visualization using PIV and pressure measurements on
movable and fixed spherical sediment particles were undertaken
in order to investigate the linkage between coherent flow struc-
tures and hydrodynamic forces leading to entrainment for a rough
bed uniform turbulent flow. Movable ball experiments reveal the
predominance of large sweep structures of size 2 – 4D in the
streamwise direction and 0.5– 1D in the stream-normal direction
at the instant of entrainment.
Fixed ball experiments carried out at entrainment conditions
show the cooccurrence of high vertical and horizontal pressure
gradients on the sphere coinciding with the occurrence of a sweep
766 / JOURNAL OF HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING © ASCE / OCTOBER 2010
J. Hydraul. Eng. 2010.136:756-769.
event. The vertical pressure gradient is found to be significantly
higher 共1.88 times in this study兲 than the submerged specific
weight of the particle during sweep events. At the same time,
relatively high wake-induced form drag occurs, while skin drag is
relatively small.
pdf plots based on quadrant analysis of the dominant hydro-
dynamic forces reveal the higher probability of occurrence of
high magnitude force induced by sweep 共Q4兲 events. Ejection
共Q2兲 events are found to be mainly responsible for extreme forces
below the mean. The mean and extreme values of forces corre-
sponding to outward interaction 共Q1兲 event and inward interaction
共Q3兲 events are found to have a lower probability of occurrence
and hence are of little importance in sediment entrainment.
The findings of this study apply to rough bed uniform
turbulent flows. The results of the study are applicable to proto-
type flows of similar configuration following the laws of similar-
ity relevant to sediment entrainment as shown in the Appendix.
Acknowledgments
The writers gratefully acknowledge the support of Professor
Arved J. Raudkivi in encouraging the research, suggesting the
experimental setup and reading the first draft. The writers also
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by University of South Florida on 06/13/13. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.

Fig. 12. Probability density of drag force 共a兲 in normal scale; 共b兲 log scale for e = 17 mm; and lift force 共c兲 in normal scale and 共d兲 log scale for
e = 11 mm based on quadrant analysis

acknowledge the support provided by Tushar K. Guha, Graduate

Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University
of Auckland, New Zealand, in preparing response to reviewers.
冉 冊
uⴱm
uⴱp
2
=
共Ss − 1兲m Dm
共Ss − 1兲 p D p
共1兲

For a bed material of specific gravity of 2.65 in the prototype and

model bed material of specific gravity of 1.12, Eq. 共1兲 reduces to

Appendix

The field applicability of the study is guided by the similarity

冉 冊
uⴱm
uⴱp
2
=
1 Dm
13.75 D p
共2兲

laws relevant to sediment entrainment in rough bed uniform flows

For uniform, open channel flow, the shear velocity can be ex-
such as similarity of Shields parameter ␪ = u2ⴱ / 共Ss − 1兲gD, which is
pressed in terms of bed slope and flow depth as
of the same form as Froude number and the grain-size Reynolds
number Rⴱ = uⴱD / ␷, geometric similarity, which includes similar-
ity of relative roughness ks / z0 共where ks = sand-grain roughness uⴱ = 冑gHSb 共3兲
and z0 = roughness length兲 and relative exposure e / D. The cosimi-
larity of Reynolds and Froude numbers of a flow is possible only Thus, the ratio of the shear velocities of the model and prototype
if the length scales are equal, meaning that similarity for both flow is
viscous and gravity effects can be maintained only at full scale.
2
Since this study deals with turbulent flow, Froude number simi- uⴱm HmSbm
= 共4兲
larity is appropriate. u2ⴱp H pSbp
Considering Shields parameter similarity between the model
and prototype 共hereafter referred to by subscripts m and p, respec- Combining Eqs. 共2兲 and 共4兲, the relationship between the nondi-
tively兲 mensional quantity 共H / D兲Sb for model and prototype is

JOURNAL OF HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING © ASCE / OCTOBER 2010 / 767

J. Hydraul. Eng. 2010.136:756-769.

 Hp Hm H ⫽ flow depth;
Sbp = 13.75 Sbm 共5兲 ks ⫽ equivalent sand-grain roughness height;
Dp Dm
L⬘ ⫽ instantaneous pressure difference= 共p4⬘ − p2⬘兲;
Since the critical shear stress 共uⴱ兲 at entrainment condition varies p⬘ ⫽ instantaneous fluctuating pressure;
with exposure both in model and prototype scale, the nondimen- Rⴱ ⫽ grain-size Reynolds number;
sional quantity 共H / D兲Sb varies accordingly. Eq. 共6兲 represents the Re ⫽ flow Reynolds number;
variation of 共H / D兲Sb with e p / D p obtained from regression of the Sb ⫽ bed surface slope;
experimental results Ss ⫽ specific gravity of sediment;
ū ⫽ time-averaged streamwise velocity;
Hp 1
Sbp = − e p/D p + 0.20 共6兲 u c, w c ⫽ instantaneous critical local velocities;
Dp 4 w̄ ⫽ time-averaged vertical velocity;
In theory for a given exposure, this study can thus be extended to u ⬘, w ⬘ ⫽ instantaneous velocity fluctuations in
a large number of prototype flow configurations for a range of streamwise and vertical directions, respectively;
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by University of South Florida on 06/13/13. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.

particle size based on flow depth and slope such that Eq. 共5兲 is Ū ⫽ depth-averaged streamwise velocity;
satisfied. uⴱc ⫽ critical shear velocity;
The smallest particle size 共D pmin兲 to which this study can be z ⫽ stream-normal distance;
extrapolated based on the condition that the grain Reynolds num- zo ⫽ roughness length;
ber is greater than 70 for a rough bed flow is ␪c ⫽ critical Shields parameter;
␬ ⫽ von Kármán constant;
70␯ ␯ ⫽ fluid kinematic viscosity; and
D pmin = 共7兲
uⴱp ␴ ⫽ standard deviation.
Using Eqs. 共3兲 and 共5兲 in place of uⴱp and D p, respectively, Eq. 共7兲 Subscripts
reduces to
m ⫽ model;
D pmin = 冉冑 22.32␯
H p/D pSbp
冊 2/3
共8兲
p ⫽ prototype; and
min ⫽ minimum.

It can be noted that the value of D pmin increases with increase in

exposure for a given bed slope and flow depth as evident from
References
Eqs. 共6兲 and 共8兲 such that the study can be held applicable to
bigger size particles at increased exposures.
Buffington, J. M., Dietrich, W. E., and Kirchner, J. W. 共1992兲. “Friction
For a particle to be entrained by uplift the lift force has to be
angle measurements on a naturally formed gravel streambed: Impli-
at least equal to the submerged weight of the particle; i.e., cations for critical boundary shear stress.” Water Resour. Res., 28共2兲,
⳵ p/⳵ z 共L⬘兲/D 共p⬘4 − p⬘2兲/D 411–425.
⬇ = 共9兲 Cameron, S. M. 共2006兲. “Near boundary flow structure and particle en-
⌬␳g ⌬␳g ⌬␳g trainment.” Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
For a particle of the same specific gravity in model and prototype, Canny, J. F. 共1986兲. “A computational approach to edge detection.” IEEE
Eq. 共9兲 reduces to Trans. on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 8共6兲, 679–698.
Chin, C. 共1985兲. “Stream bed armouring.” Technical Rep. No. 403,
L⬘p Lm⬘ School of Engineering, The Univ. of Auckland, Auckland, New
= 共10兲 Zealand.
D p Dm
Cleaver, J., and Yates, B. 共1976兲. “The effect of re-entrainment on par-
Eq. 共10兲 implies that the bigger the particle size, the higher the ticle deposition.” Chem. Eng. Sci., 31, 147–151.
pressure difference and hence pressure gradient remains constant Constantinescu, G. S., and Squires, K. D. 共2003兲. “LES and DES inves-
irrespective of the particle size. tigations of turbulent flow over a sphere at Re= 10, 000 .” Flow, tur-
Similarity of relative exposure in the model and prototype can bulence and combustion ERCOFTAC Journal, 70, 267–298.
be expressed as Detert, M. 共2008兲. “Hydrodynamic processes at the water-sediment inter-
face of streambeds.” Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Ger-
Dp many.
e p = em 共11兲 Diplas, P., Clint, D. L., Ahmet, O. C., Manousos, V., Krista, G., and
Dm
Tanju, A. 共2008兲. “The role of impulse on the initiation of particle
For model exposures of 11 and 17 mm, the corresponding proto- movement under turbulent flow conditions.” Science, 322, 717–720.
type exposures 共e p兲 are 0.275D p and 0.425D p, respectively. Dyer, K. R., and Soulsby, R. L. 共1988兲. “Sand transport on the continen-
tal shelf.” Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech., 20共1兲, 295–324.
Einstein, H. A., and El-Samni, E. A. 共1949兲. “Hydrodynamic forces on a
Notation rough wall.” Rev. Mod. Phys., 21, 520–524.
Fenton, J. D., and Abbott, J. E. 共1977兲. “Initial movement of grains on a
stream bed: The effect of relative protrusion.” Proc. R. Soc. London,
The following symbols are used in this technical note:
Ser. A, 352, 523–537.
D ⫽ particle size; Grass, A. J. 共1983兲. The influence of boundary layer turbulence on the
Dⴱ ⫽ dimensionless particle size; mechanics of sediment transport, B. M. Sumer and A. Muller, eds.,
D⬘ ⫽ instantaneous pressure difference= 共p⬘1 − p⬘3兲; Balkema, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 3–17.
e ⫽ exposure Hofland, B. 共2005兲. “Rock and roll.” Ph.D. thesis, TU Delft, The Neth-
Fr ⫽ Froude number; erlands.
g ⫽ acceleration due to gravity; Johnston, C. E., Andrews, E. D., and Pitlick, J. 共1998兲. “In situ determi-

768 / JOURNAL OF HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING © ASCE / OCTOBER 2010

J. Hydraul. Eng. 2010.136:756-769.

 nation of particle friction angles of alluvial gravels.” Water Resour.
Res., 34共8兲, 2017–2030.
Kaftori, D., and Hetsroni, G. 共1998兲. “The effect of particles on wall
turbulence.” Int. J. Multiphase Flow, 24共3兲, 359–386.
Kline, S. J., Reynolds, W. C., Schraub, F. A., and Runstadler, P. W.
共1967兲. “The structure of turbulent boundary layers.” J. Fluid Mech.,
30, 741–773.
Nelson, J., Shreve, R. L., McLean, S. R., and Drake, T. G. 共1995兲. “Role
of near-bed turbulence structure in bed load transport and bed form
mechanics.” Water Resour. Res., 31共8兲, 2071–2086.
Ninto, Y., and Garcia, M. H. 共1996兲. “Experiments on particle-turbulence
interactions in the near-wall region of an open-channel flow: Implica-
tions for sediment transport.” J. Fluid Mech., 326, 285–319.
Rashidi, M., Hetsroni, G., and Banerjee, S. 共1990兲. “Particle-turbulence
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by University of South Florida on 06/13/13. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.
interaction in a boundary layer.” Int. J. Multiphase Flow, 16, 935–
949.
Raudkivi, A. J. 共1990兲. Loose boundary hydraulics, 3rd Ed., Pergamon,
Tarrytown, NY.
Sumer, B. M., and Deigaard, R. 共1981兲. “Particle motions near the bottom
in turbulent flow in an open channel.” J. Fluid Mech., 109, 311–338.
Teruzzi, A., Ballio, F., and Armenio, V. 共2009兲. “Turbulent stresses at the
bottom surface near an abutment: Laboratory-scale numerical experi-
ment.” J. Hydraul. Eng., 135共2兲, 106–117.
Wang, J. 共1999兲. “Hydrodynamic lift and drag fluctuations of a sphere.”
Ph.D. thesis, The Pennsylvania State Univ., Univ. Park, Pa.
Xingkui, W., and Fontijn, H. L. 共1993兲. “Experimental study of the hy-
drodynamic forces on a bed element in an open channel with a
backward-facing step.” J. Fluids Struct., 7, 299–318.

JOURNAL OF HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING © ASCE / OCTOBER 2010 / 769

J. Hydraul. Eng. 2010.136:756-769.