Boundary shear stress and flow variability due to its interaction with main flow and secondary currents were investigated under conditions that extend previous research on trapezoidal channels. Secondary currents that scale with the flow depth were found over the entire width in all experiments. These findings contradict the widespread perception that secondary currents die out at a distance of 2.5 times the flow depth from the bank, a perception which is largely based on experiments with smooth boundaries. The reported results indicate that a stable pattern of secondary currents over the entire channel width can only be sustained over a fixed horizontal bed if the bed's roughness is sufficient to provide the required transverse oscillations in the turbulent shear stresses. Contrary to laboratory flumes, alluvial river bed always provide sufficient roughness. The required external forcing of this hydrodynamic instability mechanism is provided by the turbulence-generated near-bank secondary currents. The pattern of near-bank secondary currents depends on the inclination and the roughness of the bank. In all configurations, secondary currents result in a reduction of the bed shear stress in the vicinity of the bank and a heterogeneous bank shear stress that reaches a maximum close to the toe of the bank. Moreover, these currents cause transverse variability of 10-15% for the streamwise velocities and 0.2u * 2 -0.3u * 2 for the bed shear stress. These variations are insufficient to provide the flow variability required in river restoration projects, but nevertheless must be accounted for in the design of stable channels.

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[1] Flow processes near the (concave) outer bank in curved river reaches are investigated in a laboratory flume, with focus on the influence of the bank roughness. An outer-bank cell of reversed secondary flow occurs for all the investigated roughness configurations of the outer bank. The cell widens the outer-bank boundary layer, which reduces the flow forcing on the bank, but also advects high-momentum fluid toward the lower part of the bank, which enhances the flow forcing on the bank. Increasing the roughness of the outer bank causes a considerable widening and strengthening of the outer-bank cell, which amplifies both effects on the flow forcing. The widening of the outer-bank boundary layer induced by the outer-bank cell reduces the effective width of the channel, i.e., the width where most of the discharge is conveyed, which increases significantly the sediment transport capacity in the central part of the channel. The near-bank processes are qualitatively similar but show considerable quantitative variations around the bend. The outer-bank cell reaches its maximum strength in the zone that is most vulnerable to bed scour and bank erosion, which corroborates its morphological relevance. The outer cell is mainly generated by reversed near-surface gradients in the profile of the streamwise velocity. The anisotropy of the cross-stream turbulence is the major mechanism opposed to the outer-bank cell. Increasing roughness of the outer bank amplifies all dominant mechanisms but does not modify their relative importance. The relevance of the experimental results for natural curved river configurations is discussed.

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