Most Influential Parameters for the Bed-Load Sediment Flux Equations Used in Alluvial Rivers

Abstract

Problems of bed-load sediment transport equations in alluvial rivers are addressed in this study where user-friendly parameters were developed. To determine the influences of 300 parameters on the final result, 52 selected bed-load equations for noncohesive particles (sand and gravel separately) were gathered and individually investigated. The influences of discrepancies among the computed and measured datasets were obtained by sensitivity analysis through multilinear regression method. The most influential parameters for the bed-load sediment flux equations used to describe sand particles in alluvial rivers are: the gravitational power due to Shields’ parameter with an energy slope, the universal stream power due to critical Shields’ parameter with an energy slope, the Shields’ parameter ratio, the critical unit stream power, and the Shields’ parameter with energy slope. For gravel particles, the most influential parameters are: the universal stream power due to critical Shields’ parameter with an energy slope, the Shields’ parameter ratio, the gravitational power due to Shields’ parameter with an energy slope, the Shields’ parameter with an energy slope, and the Froude number of the channel. It is expected that researchers working in this field will be able to use these predicted parameters to generate new bed-load sediment flux equations that give results that more closely agree with the actual values measured in alluvial rivers.