KIA 3005

HYDRAULICCS
Sediment Transport

Prof Ir. Dr. Faridah Othman

Dept of Civil Engineering
Universiti Malaya
Course Outcome

At the end of this topic, student should be able

to:
◼ Determine the characteristics for sediment in
channels
◼ Able to perform the sediment transport
calculations.

KIA3005 faridahothman@UM 2
Reference:

◼ Chapter 11 ‘Hydraulics of Mobile bed

channel’. by K. Subramanya, ‘Flow in Open
Channels’.
◼ Chapter 14 ‘Uniform Flow in Loose-Boundary
Channels’. By Featherstone and Nalluri. Civil
Engineering Hydraulics

KIA3005 faridahothman@UM 3
Rigid vs. mobile channel
◼ Rigid bed channel
❑ Rigid boundary
❑ Man made and non-erodible
natural channel
❑ Fixed Channel
slope/geometry, Uniform
roughness
◼ Mobile bed channel
❑ Man made or natural
channel, unlined channels
❑ Boundaries are deformable
❑ May carry sediment along
with water

KIA3005 faridahothman@UM 4
 Why it is important?
◼ River erosion and
sedimentation
◼ Flood and flash flood
◼ Siltation of reservoir
◼ Coastal flooding,
erosion, navigation
problems, etc.

KIA3005 faridahothman@UM 5
Sediment Transport

◼ Alluvium or sediment refers to the loose, non-

cohesive (such as sand and silt) transported
by, suspended in or deposited by water.
◼ In an alluvial channel the sediment particles
will start moving when the boundary shear
stress exceeds the critical shear stress.

Criteria: o > c

KIA3005 faridahothman@UM 6
Sediment transport
Sediment Transport
◦ mechanics of sediment erosion, transport, and deposition by
water

The generic categories of sediments is as follows

◦ Gravel ( > 2 mm)
◦ Sand (0.062 – 2 mm)
◦ Silt ( 0.004 – 0.062 mm)
◦ Clay ( < 0.004)

KIA3005 FARIDAHOTHMAN@UM 7
Sediment transport – short video
River Erosion: The Wrath of Nature Unveiled"
https://youtu.be/IxlpDWItLPg

KIA3005 FARIDAHOTHMAN@UM 8
Incipient motion

◼ The condition of flow at which the bed particle

is just began to move is known as incipient
motion or threshold of motion.
❑ i.e o = c

where o – boundary shear stress

c – critical shear stress

KIA3005 faridahothman@UM 9
 o and c

◼ Boundary shear stress, o

❑ o = gRS
❑ where R= Hydraulic radius (R = A/P)

◼ Critical shear stress, c ?

❑ Refer Fig 11.1

KIA3005 faridahothman@UM 10
 Considering the
sediment, fluid and
flow particles,
Shields proposed
two non-dimensional
numbers, i.e. non-
dimensionalised
shear Reynolds
number and non-
dimensionalised
shear stress (see
Fig 11.1)

Shields diagram - Graph of *c vs. Re*c

𝜏𝑐 U *c d
𝜏∗𝑐 = Re *c =
(𝜌𝑠 − 𝜌)𝑔𝑑 

KIA3005 faridahothman@UM 11
Critical Shear Stress
When Re*c > 400, the curve reach a limiting value of 0.056.
Thus the Shields criterion can be written as;

𝜏𝑐
= 0.056
Where 𝜌𝑔𝛥𝑑

s − 
=


KIA3005 FARIDAHOTHMAN@UM 12
 Bed Forms
◼ If o > c, the bed will become
dynamic and start to move.
◼ Depending upon the flow, sediment
and fluid char the bed will undergo
different levels of deformation and
motion.
◼ The bed features are (as in Fig
11.2)
❑ Plane bed with no sediment
motion
❑ Ripples and dunes

❑ Transition

◼ plane bed with sediment

motion
◼ standing wave

❑ Antidunes

KIA3005 faridahothman@UM 13
Bed Form and Resistance
◼ In alluvial channels the different bed forms that
can occur have a marked impact on the total
resistance to flow.
◼ In a mobile bed channel the total resistance to
flow could be considered to be made up of the
resistance due to the grains composing the bed
and the drag resistance offered by the bed form
shapes.
◼ Fig. (11.3) shows schematically the variation of
the Darcy-Weisbach friction factor f with bed
forms.
KIA3005 faridahothman@UM 14
KIA3005 faridahothman@UM 15
KIA3005 faridahothman@UM 16
Prediction of bed forms
◼ There have been numerous attempts to predict the bed forms in
terms of flow and sediment parameters.
◼ A typical classification due to Garde and Rangaraju4 [Fig. 11.4]
considers the parameters S* and R/d as significant parameters.
S0
❑ S* = ( s −  ) 

KIA3005 faridahothman@UM 17
Prediction of bed forms

KIA3005 faridahothman@UM 18
Example 1
A wide rectangle channel in alluvium of median size 3.0
mm, ρs = 2650 kg/m3 has a longitudinal slope of 0.0003.
Estimate the depth of flow in this channel which will cause
incipient motion. Assume that Shields criterion is valid.
At what depth the sediment will move?

Solution

Wide rectangular channel : R = y

Find o and c
Incipient of motion: o = c
Solve for y

KIA3005 faridahothman@UM 19
Example 2
Water is flowing in a trapezoidal channel of base width =
3.0 m, side slope = 1.5 H: 1V, longitudinal slope = 0.004
and having a depth of flow of 1.30 m.
a) Estimate the size of sediment that will cause incipient of motion if
the sediment density is given as ρs = 2650 kg/m3
b) If sediment motion is not allowed, estimate the size of sediment to
the nearest integer number and show your calculation clearly.

Solution:
Find the hydraulic radius, R = A/P
Find o and c
a) Estimate the size of sediment
b) Estimate the size of sediment for no sediment motion criteria and
and show your calculation.

KIA3005 faridahothman@UM 20
Homework
An unlined irrigation channel in an alluvium of median size
0.30 mm is of trapezoidal section with bed width = 3.0 m,
side slope = 1.5 H: 1 V, and longitudinal slope = 0.00035.
If this channel carries a discharge of 1.5 m3/s at a depth of
0.8 m, estimate the
(i) nature of the bed form,
(ii) shear stress due to the grain roughness and
(iii) shear stress due to bed forms.

KIA3005 faridahothman@UM 21