NON-ERODING WATER VELOCITIES FOR INCOHERENT BOTTOM SEDIMENTS

Abstract

There are the values of non-eroding water velocities for various types of bottom sediments (incoherent and cohesive) given in the normative documentation in the form of tables and graphs. Also there are a number of regulatory documents containing methods for calculation such velocities. These methods are based on empirical dependencies adapted to specific conditions. The calculated mean non-eroding water velocities are proportional to the depth of flow and bottom particle size in the case of incoherent bottom sediments erosion. The authors made an attempt to estimate non-eroding water velocity by a physical approach to the problem depending on the internal friction angle, the calculated clutch of incoherent bottom sediments and the depth of the water over the bottom. This approach should be universal. An analysis of the results indicated that the proposed formula for calculating bottom non-eroding water velocities in all considered cases gives results significantly higher than the values given in the regulatory documents for the corresponding size of incoherent bottom sediments. As a result authors obtained non-eroding water velocities, which were overestimated at times on the basis of expert evaluation. When the depth changes from 0.5 to 10 m, the spread of estimated bottom velocities varies from 14 to 22%, depending on the size of the incoherent soil. It was concluded that for smaller particles of incoherent soil, the less deviation of the calculated values of bottom non-eroding water velocities from the normative ones (for massive gravel sands at a 10 m flow depth, the deviation from the normative values reaches 375-510%). In addition, the dependence of the value bottom non-eroding water velocity on the depth is traced, which is not provided in regulatory documents. The authors offer the scientific community to join to discussion of the reasons for these discrepancies.