Bed-Load Transport. II: Stochastic Characteristics

Abstract

This paper deals with the stochastic characteristics of the saltation of bed-load transport. The trajectories of particles with different specific gravity are measured by high-speed photographic technique, and the experiments on bed-load transport processes also have been conducted. It is concluded that the probability density distributions of dimensionless saltation height and length follow the Γ-distributions and the dimensionless salation velocity follows the Gaussian distribution. Moreover, the probability density distributions of the concentration in the bed-load layer and bed-load transport rate also are formulated, and they follow the Γ-distributions approximately. Measured data in natural rivers and experimental flume agree with these distributions very well.