Ripples on Stream Bed
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 123, Issue 1
Abstract
Some 30 years ago, John F. Kennedy laid the foundations for the description of the geometry of sand waves on stream beds by the potential flow model. Since then, the analysis has been extensively refined and extended, but no rigorous description of the small features, called ripples, exists. The present study attempts a “stock-taking” of the data and the various behavioral concepts with the aim of encouraging researchers to improve our knowledge of the physics of features called ripples. Various trends are identified from the data. It is deduced that ripples act as roughness elements of the boundary. The ripple troughs are “filled” with the energy-consuming lee vortices. The main flow is over the ripple crests and lee vortices and does not interact with the bed geometry. The “roughness layer” of ripples and vortices is within the constant shear layer and is affected by the flow depth only as far as it affects the velocity distribution and alters the shear stress on the bed.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
1.
Allen, J. R. L. (1968). Current ripples. North-Holland Publishing Co., Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
2.
Anderson, A. G. (1953). “The characteristics of sediment waves formed by flow in open channels.”Proc., 3rd Midwestern Conf. on Fluid Mech., Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn., 379–395.
3.
Annambhotla, V. S. S., Sayre, R. H., and Livesey, W. W.(1972). “Statistical properties of Missouri River bed forms.”J. Wtrwy., Port, Coast., and Oc. Engrg., ASCE, 98(4), 489–510.
4.
Baas, J. H. (1993). “Dimensional analysis of current ripples in recent and ancient depositional environments.”Geologica Ul Traiectina No. 106, Dept. of Geology, Univ. of Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
5.
Coleman, S. E. (1991). “The mechanics of alluvial stream bed forms,” PhD thesis, Dept. of Civ. Engrg. Rep. No. 517, Univ. of Auckland, Auckland, N.Z.
6.
Engelund, F.(1970). “Instability of erodible beds.”J. Fluid Mech., 42(2), 225–244.
7.
Ertel, H. (1966). “Kinematik und Dynamik formbeständig wandernder Transvaldünen.”Monatsberichte der Deutschen Akademie zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany, Band 8, Heft 10 (in German).
8.
Exner, F. M. (1920). “Zur Physik der Dünen.”Sitzungs Bericht Akad. Wiss. Wien, Mathemathisch-naturw, Klasse, Abt. IIa, Band 129 (in German).
9.
Exner, F. M. (1925). “Über die Wechselwirkung zwischen Wasser und Geschiebe in Flüssen.”Sitzungs Bericht Akad. Wiss. Wien, Abt. IIa, Band 134 (in German).
10.
Exner, F. M. (1931). “Zur Dynamik der Bewegungsformen auf der Erdoberfläche.”Ergebnisse der Kosmischen Physik, Erster Band, Akademische Verlag, Leipzig, Germany (in German).
11.
Fredsøe, J.(1974). “On the development of dunes in erodible channels.”J. Fluid Mech., 64, 1–16.
12.
Kennedy, J. F.(1963). “The mechanics of dunes and antidunes in erodible-bed channels.”J. Fluid Mech., 16, 521–544.
13.
Kim, H. T., Kline, S. J., and Reynolds, W. C.(1971). “The production of turbulence near a smooth wall in a turbulent boundary layer.”J. Fluid Mech., 50(1), 130–160.
14.
Kühlborn, J. M. (1993). “Wachstum und wanderung von sedimentriffeln,” PhD dissertation, Fachbereich Bauingenieurwesen, Techn. Hochschule Darmstadt, Germany (in German).
15.
Laufer, J., and Badri Narayanan, M. A. (1971). “Mean period of turbulent production mechanism in a boundary layer.”Phys. of Fluids, 14, 182–183.
16.
Mantz, P. A.(1978). “Bed forms produced by fine, cohesionless, granular and flakey sediments under subcritical water flows.”Sedimentology, 25, 1–21.
17.
Mantz, P. A. (1983). “Semi-empirical correlations for fine and coarse cohesionless sediment transport.”Proc., Instn. of Civ. Engrs. (London), Vol. 75, Part 2, Paper 8594, 33 pp.
18.
Mantz, P. A.(1992). “Cohesionless, fine-sediment bed forms in shallow flows.”J. Hydr. Engrg., ASCE, 118(5), 743–764.
19.
Raudkivi, A. J. (1965). “Turbulence and vorticity in loose boundary hydraulics.”Proc., 2nd Australasian Conf. on Hydr. and Fluid Mech., Univ. of Auckland, N.Z.
20.
Raudkivi, A. J. (1967). Loose boundary hydraulics, 2nd Ed., Pergamon Press, Oxford, England.
21.
Raudkivi, A. J.(1983). “Thoughts on ripples and dunes.”J. Hydr. Res., 21, 315–321.
22.
Raudkivi, A. J., and Witte, H. H.(1990). “Development of bed features.”J. Hydr. Engrg., ASCE, 116(9), 1063–1079.
23.
Reynolds, A. J.(1965). “Waves on the erodible bed of an open channel.”J. Fluid Mech., ASCE, 22, 113–133.
24.
Richards, K. J.(1980). “The formation of ripples and dunes on an erodible bed.”J. Fluid Mech., 99, 597–618.
25.
Southard, J. B., and Boguchwal, L. A.(1990). “Bed configurations in steady unidirectional water flows. Part 2. Synthesis of flume data.”J. Sedimentary Petrology, 60(5), 658–679.
26.
Tsujimoto, T., and Nakagawa, H. (1982). “Sand wave formation due to irregular bed load motion.”Euromech 156, Mech. of Sediment Transport, A. A. Balkema, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 109–117.
27.
Tsujimoto, T., and Nakagawa, H.(1984). “Spectral analysis of sand bed instability.”J. Hydr. Engrg., ASCE, 110(4), 467–483.
28.
Yalin, M. S.(1985). “On the determination of ripple geometry.”J. Hydr. Engrg., 111(8), 1148–1155.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Published online: Jan 1, 1997
Published in print: Jan 1997
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.