Evaluating the effects of stream power on rill flow resistance

Abstract

Limited information is currently available on how sediment transport affects rill flow resistance and the influence of hydraulic variables, as stream power, on sediment transport capacity for rill flows. In this paper, the available measurements of hydraulic variables (flow depth, channel slope, mean flow velocity, Reynolds number, Froude number, and Darcy–Weisbach friction factor) carried out by Ban et al. (Measurement of rill and ephemeral gully flow velocities and their model expression affected by flow rate and slope gradient. Journal of Hydrology, 589, 125172) and Ban (Measurements and estimation of flow velocity in mobile bed rills. International Journal of Sediment Research, 38(1), 97–104) for fixed and mobile bed rills are used to test the applicability of a theoretically deduced rill flow resistance equation based on a power-velocity profile. The results allowed for stating that (i) the theoretical flow resistance approach can predict Darcy–Weisbach friction factor for flows over fixed and mobile beds, (ii) the stream power, dependent on flow discharge and slope, determines different flow behaviour, and (iii) the data are supportive of the slope independence hypothesis of rill velocity, for the mobile bed condition, only for the highest investigated discharge values (greater than 0.133 L s−1).