A Laboratory Study of Sediment Transport in Free Surface Flow

This paper discusses an undergraduate fluid mechanics laboratory session. The lab allows the students to observe various sediment transport phenomena in a hands-on manner. The experiments are performed in a glass-walled, tilting sediment flume. The following sediment transport phenomena are created and observed by the students — bed load, suspended load, bed forms (ripples, dunes, antidunes...), surface waves over various bed forms and local scour at flow obstructions including bridge piers and abutments. Students are able to observe local scour using PVC pipes for bridge piers and dimension lumber for abutment scour. Since the flume is 12.2-m long, a large group of students can spread out along both sides of the flume to observe bed forms and to perform local scour tests.