The Effect of Overbank Flow in a Meandering River on its Conveyance and the Transport of Graded Sediments

A large-scale model hydraulic study of inbank and over-bank river flow, using a regular sinuous river channel with a mobile bed, was carried out in the Flood Channel Facility at HR Wallingford, UK. The selected sediment had a wide range of particle sizes present over the 'fine sand to coarse sand'range. Flow velocity, local and global sediment transport rates, and channel conveyance were all measured. The resulting bed forms were determined and used to explain the secondary circulation in the sinuous channel as well as the size sorting of the sediment. The paper gives an early overview of this major project.