14/07/2023, 05:53 Experimental Flume Lab

Abrasion by Bedload and Suspended Load:  Experimental Study

Project Summary
Personnel:  Phairot Chatanantavet (Ph.D.)  Mark Adams  Andrew

River incision into bedrock is one of the fundamental drivers o

evolution but occurs relatively slowly and during infrequent flo
making it difficult to investigate. There has been considerable prog
past decade on understanding the role of bedrock channels in
landscape evolution, but this has been accomplished primarily with
sets for river incision that lump together a diverse set of erosional m
(stream power models). These models start from the premise that e
increases with increasing shear stress. A recently developed phys
model of bedrock abrasion by bedload (Sklar and Dietrich, 19
however, predicts rather that erosion rate depends strongly on bedloa
flux, as modulated by the extent of alluvial bed cover, and, all else
decreases with increasing shear stress. This suggests that much of the
the interactions among climate, tectonics, and topography comp
simple stream power models needs to be re-assessed. But this mo
course, rests on simplifying assumptions and must be tested, an
refined, before its predictions are broadly accepted and incorp
landscape evolution theory, as suggested by the theoretical extens
model to handle suspended-load abrasion (Lamb et al., 2008) 

Our previous experimental work has quantitatively confirmed that i

increases linearly with sediment flux, and decreases with bedcover, a
But the aspects of the saltation-abrasion model that most diffe
predictions from those of the stream-power models – the prediction
rate decreases with bed shear stress, reaching near-zero as sedimen
suspension – have not yet been demonstrated and, indeed, have been
by Lamb et al. (2008). Further, these model predictions rest on th
limiting assumptions in the saltation-abrasion model: that the ri
perfectly planar, and that the sediment is very well sorted. Both are of
in nature and these violations may fundamentally change th
relationship between shear stress and erosion rate. Experimental res
while incomplete, bear out this inference and suggest a complex inter
bed topography, sediment size distribution, fluid discharge, and
Johnson and Whipple (in review) report that incision rate is independ
discharge (neither increasing as predicted by stream power m
decreasing as predicted by the saltation-abrasion model). Johnson a
(2007) and Chatanantavet and Parker (2006), however, report that i
increases with bed slope (as predicted by simple stream power mo
ways of manipulating bed shear stress produced markedly differ
suggesting a rich behavior not captured by existing models. 

We propose an experimental study at ASU to complement and

previous flume experiments. We plan to vary the primary controllin
(flux and size distribution of sediment; channel slope; water disc
substrate hardness) in a systematic exploration of parameter space, in
transition from bedload to suspended load transport. Bed morpholo
allowed to evolve naturally, and the critical feedbacks between bed m
fluid dynamics, sediment flux, and local erosion rate will be quantifie
preliminary experiments, field observations, and previous numerical
formulate six quantitative hypotheses that can and will be tested
measurement of erosion rate, bed topography, grain saltation
sediment transport rate, and fluid flow conditions, allowing refinemen
theory. 

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