Role of near-bed turbulence in bedload transport

Bedload transport by a turbulent fluid moving over an erodible sediment bed results from complex interactions between flow field of the overlying fluid and the grains making up the bed. To develop a better view of these interactions, a method that combines high-speed photography with laser-Doppler velocimetry was devised. The methodology permits correlation of bedload transport with local turbulence structure at a frequency resolution of 10 hz. By making a suite of measurements at varying distances from a backward step, data were obtained for a variety of flows with different turbulence characteristics ranging from steady, uniform boundary layers to highly intermittent, nonuniform wake-like flows.