Sediment transport in ice-covered channels

The existence of ice cover has important effects on sediment transport and channel morphology for rivers in areas with an annual occurrence of an ice season. The interaction of sediment transport and surface ice is poorly understood. In this paper, data from existing flume experiments, each with a limited range of flow and sediment transport conditions, are analyzed. The analysis showed that the bed load transport in ice-covered channels can be described by conventional relationships for the equivalent free-surface flow if the flow strength is expressed in terms of the bed shear stress. A modified Rouse formulation considering the effect of the ice cover on velocity and turbulent diffusion is shown to be applicable for calculating the suspended sediment transport discharge.