Tests of Selected Sediment‐Transport Formulas

Abstract

Eleven existing, sediment‐transport formulas were tested against the field data measured at two United States Geological Survey (USGS) gauging stations along the Sacramento River in California, whose bed‐material sizes are classified as those ranging from fine sand to coarse gravel. They include the Ackers‐White Einstein‐Brown, Engelund‐Fredsoe, Engelund‐Hansen, Inglis‐Lacey, Karim, Meyer‐Peter and Mueller, Rijin, Schoklitsch, Toffaleti, and Yang formulas. General flow and sediment input variables required by each transport function, as well as dependent variables, are summarized and detailed, and measured hydraulic and sediment quantities including bed‐material size distributions are presented. The computed sediment discharges are tabulated for comparison, and are directly compared against the measured suspended‐sediment discharges. The computed values, however, are found to deviate significantly from the measured values except for a very few cases. The test results clearly demonstrate how difficult a task it is to predict sediment discharges in natural rivers.