Practical Computations of Bed-Material Discharge

Abstract

At least five alternative measures of fluid forces or fluid velocities may have usually dominant effects on the discharge of bed-material in a sand-bed stream. Interrelationships among most of these measures vary widely with changes in the resistance to flow. Approximately defined average relationships between discharge of bed-material per foot of stream width and each of four usually dominant measures (mean velocity, stream power, and two forms of effective shear on the bed sediment) are shown graphically as possible bases for practical computations of bed-material discharge. Such usually secondary factors as depth of flow, particle size of the bed sediment, water temperature, and concentration of fine sediment affect each defined relationship, generally by different amounts.