Continuous Monitoring of Bed-Load Transport in a Laboratory Flume Using an Impact Sensor
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 143, Issue 6
Abstract
Bed-load transport rate in gravel-bed rivers shows large non-Gaussian fluctuations, even under steady flow conditions. The development of high-resolution measurement techniques during the last two decades creates research opportunities to study the intermittent character of bed-load transport and the significance of its fluctuations. In this paper, the use of an impact plate as an alternative to video-based technology for laboratory applications is investigated. The objective is to develop a simple and robust technology that can be run continuously over several hours. The impact plate is mounted vertically at the flume outlet. This is a novel nonintrusive configuration, which reduces the uncertainties in the particle transport rate measurement compared with the classical configuration: in that configuration, the impact plate is indeed parallel to the bed and the vibrations recorded by the sensor depend a great deal on the features of particle motion (e.g., the mode of transport, the angle of impact, and the particle velocity). Two key variables were monitored in different flume experiments: the number of moving particles and the bed-load transport rate. They were measured using the vertical plate sensor and image processing. The impact plate and the camera were found to reach the same level of accuracy. The vertical impact plate can therefore be an efficient measurement technique, which requires reduced costs and computational resources.
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Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation (Grant 200021_129538 for a project called “The Stochastic Torrent: Stochastic Model for Bed Load Transport on Steep Slope”). They also thank the editorial board and two anonymous reviewers for the constructive comments that helped improve the initial manuscript.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 143 • Issue 6 • June 2017
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 25, 2016
Accepted: Oct 12, 2016
Published ahead of print: Feb 6, 2017
Published online: Feb 7, 2017
Published in print: Jun 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Jul 7, 2017
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