An Assessment of Bed Load Equation Based On Alluvial River Data

Abstract

There are many equations to determine the bed load transport rate. In this study, applicability of the
sediment transport equations of Meyer Peter and Muller (1948), Brown (1950), Bagnold (1966), Hassanzadeh (2007)
had been tested. This was done using a data set consisting of total 81 bed load transport values from two river reaches
such as Chulitna River and Clearwater River. Results shows that only Brown (1950) equation delivered the best
estimate of bed load of Chulitna River. The Bagnold (1966) and Hassanzadeh (2007) equations estimated the bed load
more than the observed rate and Meyer Peter and Muller (1948) estimated the transport rate of bed load less than the
observed rate for Chulitna River. Meyer Peter and Muller (1948) gave better agreement with measured data of
Clearwater River. The high scattering in computed results by Brown (1950), Bagnold (1966) and Hassanzadeh (2007)
formulas, cleared that these equations were not appropriate for estimate of bed load of Clearwater River.