Structural Properties of the Static Armor during Formation and Reestablishment in Gravel-Bed Rivers

Abstract

The formation and reestablishment of bed structural properties in the static armor layer is an important research subject. To address this issue, we conducted a series of static armor layer experiments in a laboratory flume that focused on formation and reestablishment. Through an automatic measurement system, we obtained a real-time bed load transport rate. The bed surface elevation at different flow intensities was obtained using a PTS (Photo Terrain Scanning) system. The results show that the formation and reestablishment of the bed load transport rate in the static armor layer increased from zero to its peak before decaying. The bed structure response was found to be highly dependent on the unevenness of the bed surface elevation. The bed surface elevation of a static armor layer in a laboratory flume is considered as a two-dimensional random field. In a two-dimensional random field, the changes in bed elevation are characterized using statistical parameters. Statistical parameters are evaluated from precise digital elevation models (DEMs) of bed surfaces. Experimental results provide the change of probability distribution functions (PDFs) and second-order structure functions of bed elevations between formation and reestablishment after breaking the static armor layer. By quantitatively analyzing the changes in these statistical parameters, we quantified the difference between the bed structure in the static armor layer formation and the new static armor layer formed after being broken. Thus, this finding reveals that the bed structure of the static armor layer formed by different flow intensities is different, and this difference can be quantified using statistical methods.