125

Garde, R. J. and Ranga Raju, K. G. Mechanics of sediment transportation and

alluvial stream problems New Delhi: Wiley Eastern Ltd. vii + 483 pp. £7.25.

Some recent American publications in the general field of fluid mechanics

and fluvial hydraulics have been anthologies which present impressive
definitions of the state of the art in various aspects of these subjects (Shen,
1971; Simons and Senturk, 1976). These volumes fail to provide a
coherent, integrated survey of hydraulic engineering, whereas this book by
Garde and Ranga Raju is a well-written, well-organized unified review of
theoretical and applied hydraulics. The authors’ backgrounds are
exemplary since Garde undertook his doctoral research at Colorado State
University and both are steeped in the long tradition of hydraulic
engineering in the Indian subcontinent, where some aspects of the subject
might almost have been fathered. The review copy was a 1978 reprinted
edition, with some of the errors noted by reviewers of the 1977 first edition
corrected (including upside-down diagrams!). Some errors persist, and the
quality of production is low by western standards, with poor paper,
variable printing density, some diagrams lacking axis definition (5.9, 5.10)
or over-reduced, occasional lapses in proof-reading, and
very occasional
of
idiosyncracies grammar. However, these are minor criticisms and should
not detract from the overall favourable impression created by the book.
Possibly the anthology format adopted by the American examples noted
above reflects a desire to avoid the rather stultifying inevitability of the
structure of a text on river mechanics. The content of the book by Garde
and Ranga Raju is organized along lines similar to other works on
hydraulics by Graf (1971), Yalin (1972) and Raudkivi (1967). However,
the authors have succeeded in presenting the conventional sequence of
chapters as an integrated body of knowledge, both in theoretical and
practical contexts, with frequent cross-referencing between chapters which
proves particularly valuable in the applied hydraulics chapters when
reference is made to the previously outlined theory of sediment transport.
The 16 chapters are divided equally into two parts, the first concerned
with the mechanics of sediment transport and the second with applied
problems associated with natural and designed alluvial channels.
The first eight, theoretical, chapters form a natural sequence, beginning
with properties of sediment relevant to sediment transport theory (such as
size, shape, and fall velocity), and continuing with chapters concerned
with incipient motion of particles, flow regimes and bedforms, flow
resistance and velocity distribution, and bed load, suspended load and
total load transport theories. Each chapter contains a systematic appraisal
of the literature, usually classifying the major references reviewed into a
number of significant general approaches. For example, the chapter on
resistance to flow considers separately attempts to develop total resistance <

(Manning-type) relationships and methods based on division of resistance

into form and skin components while the incipient motion chapter

Downloaded from ppg.sagepub.com at University of Sussex Library on March 26, 2015

126

distinguishes methods based on concepts of critical bed velocity, lift forces,

and critical tractive forces. Within each class of approach the literature
review is extensive, sequential, and usually concluded by a brief summary
and critique. An overriding impression gained is that discrepancies
between individual theoretical analyses are often the result of decisions to
treat certain variables or groups of variables as constants to simplify the
analysis for certain purposes or in specific environments, so that a more
systematic review of the theoretical background would be welcome in
some cases. An earlier and more detailed explanation of dimensional

analysis would perhaps have assisted this objective, particularly since

most graphs present relationships between dimensionless groups, and
dimensional analysis forms the starting point for many of the studies
described. It is unusual for a hydraulics text that dimensional analysis
should be relegated to a brief mention in relation to similarity problems in
model studies in the final, catch-all chapter on ’miscellaneous topics’.
The second group of chapters, on applied aspects of hydraulic
engineering, covers sediment samplers, design of stable channels, sediment
control in canals, stream bed changes (scour, aggradation and degradation
induced by man-made structures) and a group of minor topics in the final
chapter including density currents, mudflows and sediment transport in
pipes. There are also chapters on alluvial stream hydraulic geometry and
variation in planform of streams. The reference to geomorphology in the
chapter on alluvial streams is to the cycle of erosion, hardly relevant to
the engineering time scale, and confirming the dominance of the
engineering viewpoint taken by the authors and their dated view of
geomorphological contributions. This is most apparent in the chapters on
various modes of sediment transport, which concentrate on mechanics of
flow within the channel to the virtual exclusion of catchment influences on
sediment supply; at the end of the discussion of total load transport, for
example, only eighteen lines are devoted to hydrologic rather than
hydraulic influences on sediment transport. However, it is interesting to
see Schaffernak’s concept of ’bed generative
discharge’ (1950) quoted, this
being a clear but acknowledged antecedent of Pickup’s (1976) approach
to dominant or channel-formative discharge, suggesting
perhaps that there
is in any case nothing new under the geomorphological sun! British
geomorphologists might be disappointed to find no explicit reference to
gravel bed streams either in the chapter on hydraulic geometry or in that
on channel design; the paper by Kellerhals (1967) is
ignored, for example,
although not surprisingly given the general context of the book and the
authors’ experience. The chapter on planform of rivers is an encouraging
addition to a river engineering book, since the freedom of natural streams
to vary their plan geometry is the most important distinction between
natural and designed channels. It concentrates on secondary circulation
and bed shear distribution in bends, surprisingly ignores minimum
variance theory and associated energy loss theories (Langbein and

Downloaded from ppg.sagepub.com at University of Sussex Library on March 26, 2015

 127

Leopold, 1966) in its discussion of explanations of meandering, and

perhaps unsurprisingly says little about braided streams whose instability
makes avoidance the best engineering practice. Given the lack of a
completely satisfactory general framework for the design of straight
channels, it is hardly unexpected that engineering channel design
equations do not explicitly allow for the meandering degree of freedom, but
it might have been anticipated that the role of secondary circulation and
maintenance of sinuosity and bed topography would have been stressed
in relation to problems of stabilizing natural river channels, perhaps in the
section on river training (as outlined, for example, by Keller in 1976).
For a book published originally in 1977, there is a shortage of recent
literature in the reference lists; only about 7 per cent are post-1970
references and a large proportion of these are to published papers by the
authors or to Indian PhD theses. Thus there is a suggestion that the text
is already slightly dated, and unlikely to make substantial inroads into the
market commanded by the well-established texts such as those by Graf,
Yalin and Raudkivi. However, it is more up-to-date than some of these,
and is therefore a useful alternative. In fact, the well-organized, systematic
treatment it provides makes it a worthy competitor and a book which one
can willingly recommend to fluvial geomorphologists at the research level
who wish to brush up their knowledge of the somewhat haphazard
theoretical background which river mechanics provides for their discipline.

University of Hull K. S. Richards

Graf, W. H. 1971: Hydraulics of sediment transport. Oxford: Pergamon.

Keller, E. A. 1976: Channelization: environmental, geomorphic and engineering
aspects. In Coates, D. R., editor, Geomorphology and engineering, Stroudsburg,
Pennsylvania: Dowden, Hutchinson and Ross, 115-140.
Kellerhalls, R. 1967: Stable channels with gravel-paved beds. Proceedings of the
American Society of Civil Engineers, Journal of the Waterways and Harbours Division
93, 63-84.
Langbein, W. B. and Leopold, L. B. 1966: River meanders&mdash;theory of minimum
variance. US Geological Survey, Professional Paper 422-H. (15 pp.)
Pickup, G. 1976: Adjustment of stream-channel shape to hydrologic Journal regime.
of Hydrology 30, 365-73.
Raudkivi, A. J. 1967: Loose boundary hydraulics. Oxford: Pergamon.
Schaffernak, F. 1950: Flussmorphologie und Flussbau. Vienna: Springer Verlag.
Shen, H. W., editor, 1971: River mechanics, 2 volumes. H. W. Shen, PO Box 606,
Fort Collins, Colorado.
Simons, D. B. and Senturk, F. 1976: Sediment transport technology. Water Resources
Publications, Fort Collins, Colorado.
Yalin, M. S. 1972: Mechanics of sediment transport. Oxford: Pergamon.

Downloaded from ppg.sagepub.com at University of Sussex Library on March 26, 2015