Experimental study on morphological process of meandering channels with bank erosion

Abstract

Morphological process of meandering channels which includes bank erosion and bed deformation has been presented in this paper. Experiments were carried out using initial meandering planform with sine-generated curve. Initial channel curvature has significant contribution on bank erosion and behavior of sand bars. The non-dimensional bar height HB* was increasing with 13 (ratio of half channel width to instantaneous flow depth) up to certain limit of p and after that HB* showed decreasing tendency with the increment of p which is in contradiction with fixed bank experiments. An explanation has been provided of the above observed phenomenon. Criteria of meander development are discussed in comparing with the previous theory.