Effect of Mean Velocity-to-Critical Velocity Ratios on Bed Topography and Incipient Motion in a Meandering Channel: Experimental Investigation

Abstract

As 180-degree meanders are observed in abundance in nature, a meandering channel with two consecutive 180-degree bends was designed and constructed to investigate bed topography variations. These two 180-degree mild bends are located between two upstream and downstream straight paths. In this study, different mean velocity-to-critical velocity ratios have been tested at the upstream straight path to determine the meander’s incipient motion. To this end, bed topography variations along the meander and the downstream straight path were addressed for different mean velocity-to-critical velocity ratios. In addition, the upstream bend’s effect on the downstream bend was investigated. Results indicated that the maximum scour depth at the downstream bend increased as a result of changing the mean velocity-to-critical velocity ratio from 0.8 to 0.84, 0.86, 0.89, 0.92, 0.95, and 0.98 by, respectively, 1.5, 2.5, 5, 10, 12, and 26 times. Moreover, increasing the ratio increased the maximum sedimentary height by 3, 10, 23, 48, 49, and 56 times. The upstream bend’s incipient motion was observed for the mean velocity-to-critical velocity ratio of 0.89, while the downstream bend’s incipient motion occurred for the ratio of 0.78.