Incipient motion of gravel and coal beds

Abstract

An experimental study on incipient motion of gravel and coal beds under unidirectional steady-uniform flow is presented. Experiments were carried out in a flume with various sizes of gravel and coal samples. The critical bed shear stresses for the experimental runs determined using side-wall correction show considerable disagreement with the standard curves. The characteristic parameters affecting the incipient motion of particles in rough-turbulent regime, identified based on physical reasoning and dimensional analysis, are the Shields parameter, particle Froude number, non-dimensional particle diameter and non-dimensional flow depth. Equations of critical bed shear stress for the initial movement of gravel and coal beds were obtained using experimental data. The method of application of critical bed shear stress equations is also mentioned.