Sediment transport effects on drop structure scour

Abstract

In 1983, Laursen and Flick (1) proposed an equation to predict the depth of scour at the toe of a sloping sill. The equation was developed for use with clear-water only since their experiments did not fully investigate the effect of sediment transport. Their report also left open the question of the possible ramifications of sediment transport on the depth of a scour hole. This thesis is an exploratory investigation of the effect of the sediment transport phenomenon on the depth of a scour hole. It will discuss and compare both the clear-water and sediment transport conditions and to explore if the sediment transport rates to be expected in most streams would have a substantial effect on the scour at the toe of a sloping sill.