Flow resistance and hydraulic geometry in contrasting reaches of a bedrock channel

Ferguson, R.I.; Sharma, B.P.; Hardy, R.J; Hodge, R.A.; Warburton, J.

Abstract

Assumptions about flow resistance in bedrock channels have to be made for mechanistic modeling of river incision, paleoflood estimation, flood routing, and river engineering. Field data on bedrock flow resistance are very limited and calculations generally use standard alluvial-river assumptions such as a fixed value of Manning's n. To help inform future work we measured how depth, velocity and flow resistance vary with discharge in four short reaches of a small bedrock channel, one with an entirely rock bed and the others with 20%-70% sediment cover, and in the alluvial channel immediately upstream. As discharge and submergence increase in each of the partly or fully alluvial reaches there is a rapid increase in velocity and a strong decline in both n and the Darcy-Weisbach friction factor f. The bare-rock reach follows a similar trend from low to medium discharge but has increasing resistance at higher discharges because of the macro-roughness of its rock walls. Flow resistance at a given discharge differs considerably between reaches and is highest where the partial sediment cover is coarsest and most extensive. Apart from the effect of rough rock walls, the flow resistance trends are qualitatively consistent with logarithmic and variable-power equations and with non-dimensional hydraulic geometry, but quantitative agreement using sediment D84 as the roughness height is imperfect.

Citation

Ferguson, R., Sharma, B., Hardy, R., Hodge, R., & Warburton, J. (2017). Flow resistance and hydraulic geometry in contrasting reaches of a bedrock channel. Water Resources Research, 53(3), 2278-2293. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016wr020233

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 22, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Mar 22, 2017
• Publication Date: Mar 22, 2017
• Deposit Date: Feb 22, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 22, 2017
• Journal: Water Resources Research
• Print ISSN: 0043-1397
• Electronic ISSN: 1944-7973
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 53
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 2278-2293
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/2016wr020233
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1364095