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Comparative study on different sediment transport capacity based on dimensionless flow intensity index

  • Sediments, Sec 3 • Hillslope and River Basin Sediment Dynamics • Research Article
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

Sediment transport plays a vital role in the development of soil erosion process models. The primary purpose of this study is to establish new sediment transport capacity formulas and evaluate their applicability to sediment.

Materials and methods

In this study, we collected three different soil types from Loess Plateau. Simulated sediment transport experiments were carried out in indoor flumes with energy gradients ranging from 6.9 to 20.8% and unit flow discharge rates ranging from 0.00014 to 0.00111 m2 s−1.

Results and discussion

We found an exponential relationship between sediment transport capacity, energy gradients, and unit flow discharge rates. The sediment transport capacity increased with increasing energy gradient and unit flow discharge, and the unit flow discharge had a more significant influence on sediment transport capacity compared with energy gradient. We used each composite force predictor and measured the sediment transport capacity according to the nondimensional principle, and the resulting data corresponded to different soils distributed in zones, as sediment transport capacity is controlled by a critical starting condition. After including soil clay particle content and volume sediment content in our formula, we were able to derive an accurate equation for calculating sediment transport.

Conclusions

Among the dimensionless composite force predictors, the dimensionless effective stream power was the most reliable predictor. The sediment transport capacity and effective stream power were related exponentially (R2 = 0.953).

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Funding

This research was supported financially by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51579214, 41877076, 41671276), Fundamental Research Business Expenses of Central Universities (2452017321), Science and Technology Project of Yangling Demonstration Zone (2017NY-03), and Post-doctoral Supporting Fund of Shaanxi Province.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Agricultural Soil and Water Engineering of Ministry of Education in Arid Areas, Northwest A&F University, Weihui Road, Yangling, 712100, Shaanxi, China

    Luyou Zhao, Kuandi Zhang, Shufang Wu, Deqian Feng, Haixin Shang & Jingwen Wang

  2. Key Laboratory of Agricultural Soil and Water Engineering of Ministry of Education in Arid Areas, Northwest A&F University. State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Northwest A&F University, Weihui Road, Yangling, 712100, Shaanxi, China

    Kuandi Zhang

Authors
  1. Luyou Zhao
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  2. Kuandi Zhang
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  3. Shufang Wu
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  4. Deqian Feng
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  5. Haixin Shang
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  6. Jingwen Wang
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Correspondence to Kuandi Zhang.

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Responsible editor: Paolo Porto

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Zhao, L., Zhang, K., Wu, S. et al. Comparative study on different sediment transport capacity based on dimensionless flow intensity index. J Soils Sediments 20, 2289–2305 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-020-02568-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-020-02568-5

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