Laboratory application of a satellite for measuring dynamics of sediment transport in turbulent flows

Authors: Matjaž MIKOŠ, Mojca SPAZZAPAN
Citation: Acta hydrotechnica, vol. 23, no. 38, pp. 39-55, 2005.
Abstract: We have developed and tested a new instrumented artificial satellite for advanced sediment transport studies, called SPY-Cobble, where the acronym SPY stands for “Single Particle dYnamics”. This new type of tracers with internal sensors is an artificial, instrumented spherical cobble of 99 mm in diameter and has a mass of 0.9946 kg. It may be used for detection and measurements of different elements of kinematics and dynamics (especially contact forces due to impact and friction) when moving as bed load or resting on the bed surface. The satellite was tested under controlled laboratory conditions in a flume using three different flume bed materials (loose sediment bed made of cobble and boulder clasts, steel bed, flume bed made of concrete plates with cast pebble clasts) and different flume slopes between 0.025 and 0.055. The main measured dynamic parameters were the amplitudes of impact and friction forces and the time between contacts of the tracer. The obtained results for non-dimensional shear stress between 0.05 and 0.12 have shown the applicability of the satellite within the laboratory environment for transport studies on single sediment particle movement in turbulent flows.
Keywords: sediment transport, fluvial hydraulics, measuring instruments, tracers, laboratory experiments, accelerometers
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