Book Description
This report combines three studies on the acoustic method of sediment bed-load measurement in gravel-bearing rivers. The results of laboratory work, a theoretical feasibility study and a summary of the observations and analysis of a field investigation program are presented. Laboratory experiments were carried out to verify some acoustical aspects of impact noise in water for application in the development of a theoretical relationship between the noise generated by riverbed pebble collisions and bed-load transport rates. Underwater pebble noise was simulated by rolling ceramic balls on a bed of similar balls in a large laboratory flume. Sound was measured with a stationary hydrophone located in the water above the pebble bed. In field experiments, underwater sound samples were recorded in two gravelbearing rivers during periods with and without bed-load movement. Also, samples of artificially generated interparticle collision noise by different sizes of gravel pebbles were recorded. Flow velocities and bed-load transport were measured as well. The purpose of the observations was to obtain field data for the study of the feasibility of the acoustic method for bed-load measurement.
