A two-dimensional model for the simulation of the flow and sediment transport in straight compound channels

Understanding the conditions of sediment transport has been of great interest by hydraulic engineers. The highest changes in the morphology of the rivers have occurred in flood conditions and the rivers usually appear in the form of compound sections. Hence, the flow hydraulics and sediment transport are quite different compared to those of simple sections. The amount of sediment transport in rivers is a direct function of the flow velocity. Due to the intense variations of the flow velocity in compound sections, the variations of sediment transport in lateral and vertical directions are quite different in flood conditions. Due to this fact, it is better to use point velocities instead of mean velocities for the calculation of the sediment transport capacity of the rivers and then replace these point values in the empirical formulas of sediment transport (e.g. Engelund-Hansen, Ackers-White, etc.). In this research, the two-dimensional distribution of flow velocity is first calculated in the width and depth of a straight laboratory compound section by numerically solving a partial differential equation in the form of Poisson. The obtained 2D velocity distribution is then used for computation of the sediment transport capacity. By the summation of these particle capacities, the total sediment transport capacity is obtained for the canal. For Engelund-Hansen formula at the case of using the mean flow velocity and total bed shear stress, the mean error and the root-mean-square error were obtained to be 58% and 3.63 g/s, respectively. However, by replacing the point velocities and shear stresses, the errors reduced to 15% and 1.71g/s, respectively. For Ackers-White formula, these values of errors were obtained 164% and 9.36 g/s for the case of using the mean flow velocity, while for the case of point velocities, the errors were 30% and 1.86 g/s, respectively.