Design, fabrication and evaluation of a simple and precise river bed load sampler

Measurment of river sediment transport in different temporal and hydrological conditions is important in hydraulics, hydrology and soil and water conservation science and engineering. Bed load is rarely measured because of difficulties and low efficiency of conventional samplers. The present study was carried out in order to design a bed load sampler based on the conditions prevailing in the mountainous rivers flumes. The sampler with dimensions of 120 cm length, 60 cm height and 60 cm width was designed and subsequently fabricated. The accuracy of sampler was evaluated through comparing the bed loads estimations made by the designed equipment and those measured by collecting the whole discharged runoff to a 300 liters water tank installed at the outlet flume and with the help of statistical criteria. The t-test, relative erorr (RE) and relative bias (RBIAS) criteria were then used for statistical analyses. The results showed that the mean mesured bed load by water tank and designed sampler were 0.00635 and 0.0064 gl-1, respectively with no siqnificant differece (p