Title: A simplification of the Einstein equation for the calculation of suspended sediment transport in rivers

Authors: Hydar Lafta Ali; Thamer Ahamed Mohammed; Badronnisa Binti Yusuf; Azlan Abdul Aziz

Addresses: Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia; Centre for the Restoration of the Iraq Marshlands and Wetlands (CRIMW), Ministry of Water Resources, Baghdad, Iraq ' Department of Water Resources Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Baghdad, Iraq ' Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia ' Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

Abstract: In this study, a simplified equation for estimating suspended sediment load is proposed, based on regression analysis and the concept presented by Einstein, Ackers and White, and Shields. Field data for 11 rivers located at different parts of the world were used for the calibration and validation of the proposed equation. The results show that the equation gives a good performance compared with Einstein's and Bagnold's equations when tested using field data for the Atchafalaya, Red, South American, Rio Grande and Al-Garraf rivers. The minimum and maximum values of mean absolute error (MAE) and root mean square error (RMSE) between the output of the proposed equation and field records were 0.005 to 0.007 and 0.09 to 0.289, respectively. For the above rivers, graphical comparisons show that the predicted values of suspended sediment load had a range of D₅₀ < 0.14 and 0.14 < D₅₀ < 0.2 and were scattered near the line of perfect agreement, while the rivers with median particle size D₅₀ > 0.2 gave a good prediction compared with the measured sediment load. The main advantages of the proposed equation are that it is easy to apply and the results obtained from its application have reasonable accuracy.

Keywords: equation; suspended sediment; natural rivers; validation; testing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHST.2018.095536

International Journal of Hydrology Science and Technology, 2018 Vol.8 No.4, pp.393 - 409

Received: 21 Sep 2016
Accepted: 20 Apr 2017
Published online: 09 Oct 2018 *

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