Sediment Entrainment at High Flow Velocity

Abstract

In dredging practice sand is eroded at very high flow velocities using water jets. Breaching of dikes or dams is another process where sediments are eroded under the influence of high flow velocities. The existing pick-up functions were developed for relative low values of bed shear stress and hence overestimate erosion. Conventional pick-up functions can be made suitable for dealing with high-velocity erosion by taking the permeability of the sediment into account. This can be achieved by modifying the critical Shields parameter. The procedure is demonstrated using the van Rijn pick-up function. The theory is compared with experiment, and agreement is found to be good.