Controls over particle motion and resting times of coarse bed load transport in a glacier‐fed mountain stream

Coarse bed load transport is a crucial process in river morphodynamics but is difficult to monitor in mountain streams. Here we present a new sediment transport dataset obtained from two years of field‐based monitoring (2014‐2015) at the Estero Morales, a high‐gradient stream in the central Chilean Andes. This stream features step‐pool bed geometry and a glacier‐fed hydrologic regime characterized by abrupt daily fluctuations in discharge. Bed load was monitored directly using Bunte samplers and by surveying the mobility of PIT (passive integrated transponder) tags. We used the competence method to quantify the effective slope, which is the fraction of the topographical slope responsible for bed load transport. This accounts for only 10% of the topographical slope, confirming that most of the energy is dissipated on macroroughness elements. We used the displacement lengths of PIT tags to analyze displacement lengths and virtual velocity of a wide range of tracer sizes (38‐415 mm). Bed load transport in the Estero Morales show to be size‐selective and the distance between steps influences the displacement lengths of PIT tags. Displacement lengths were also used to derive the statistics of flight distances and resting times. Our results show that the average length of flight scales inversely to grain size. This contradicts Einstein's conjecture about the linear relationship between grain size and intervals between resting periods in a steep step‐pool stream in ordinary flood conditions

Keynote lecture. The debris flow event of 29 October 2018 in the Rio Rotiano (Italy) and its challenges for the mathematical and numerical modelling

The debris flow that interested the Rio Rotiano, a creek located in the Province of Trento (Italy) on 29 October 2018, is an event that, because of its peculiar features, presents formidable challenges in terms of mathematical and numerical modelling. Here we present some results of our research, which required both physical and mathematical modelling, aimed at developing a numerical tool necessary to face the back analysis of the event and the validation of the planned protection works. Exploiting some results of the laboratory tests and coupling an advanced description of the debris flow dynamics (TRENT2D model) over fixed and mobile bed with a sub-surface flow model, we obtained a model that can be defined as a mobile-bed rainfall-runoff model, where the runoff is composed by both water and sediments and represents a new paradigm in the field of debris flow simulations. First applications give promising results but some further developments are required before completing the back analysis of the Rio Rotiano event

Laser stripe measurements of near-wall solid fraction in channelflows of liquid-granular mixtures

A simple, robust, and accurate imaging technique is proposed to measure granular concentration profiles in channel flows of liquid-granular mixtures. We focus on moderate to high granular concentrations (5–50%), for which optical access is restricted to regions close to a transparent wall. To measure concentrations in this range, we illuminate solid grains moving near the wall using a transverse laser light sheet. The evolving shape of the laser stripe, deformed by passing grains, is then monitored using an oblique camera. Statistics of the granular distance to wall can thus be acquired and converted to volumetric solid fraction measurements. The method is verified using fluidization cell tests and applied to open-channel sheet flow experiments. Free of any parameter adjustment, the laser stripe method is found to yield good results, and allows joint measurements of granular velocity and solid fraction profiles

Experimentally determined distribution of granular-flow characteristics in collisional bed load transport

A series of laboratory experiments on turbulent open-channel two-phase flow in a form of intense bed load transport is reported. Measurements in a laboratory tilting flume included camera based imaging techniques to identify the structure of the flow at the local level. Obtained experimental distributions of two-phase flow related parameters - granular velocity, concentration, and temperature - across a collisional transport layer are discussed. The results are analysed together with additional measured quantities (discharges of mixture and grains, flow depth, bed slope etc). Our major goal is to evaluate the distribution of granular stresses across the transport layer with a special attention paid to the interface between the transport layer and the bed. Furthermore, comparisons are discussed between the experimental results and predictions produced by suitable kinetic-theory based models

Experimentally determined distribution of granular-flow characteristics in collisional bed load transport

A series of laboratory experiments on turbulent open-channel two-phase flow in a form of intense bed load transport is reported. Measurements in a laboratory tilting flume included camera based imaging techniques to identify the structure of the flow at the local level. Obtained experimental distributions of two-phase flow related parameters - granular velocity, concentration, and temperature - across a collisional transport layer are discussed. The results are analysed together with additional measured quantities (discharges of mixture and grains, flow depth, bed slope etc). Our major goal is to evaluate the distribution of granular stresses across the transport layer with a special attention paid to the interface between the transport layer and the bed. Furthermore, comparisons are discussed between the experimental results and predictions produced by suitable kinetic-theory based models

Entrainment and adaptation processes in the evolution of collisional bedload layers

10.1016/j.euromechflu.2021.11.007EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF MECHANICS B-FLUIDS92132-14