Particle dynamics are investigated experimentally in supercritical high‐speed open channel flow over a fixed planar bed of low relative roughness height simulating flows in high‐gradient non‐alluvial mountain streams and hydraulic structures. Non‐dimensional equations were developed for transport mode, particle velocity, hop length and hop height accounting for a wide range of literature data encompassing sub‐ and supercritical flow conditions as well as planar and alluvial bed configurations. Particles were dominantly transported in saltation and particle trajectories on planar beds were rather flat and long compared with alluvial bed data due to (1) increased lift forces by spinning motion, (2) strongly downward directed secondary currents, and (3) a planar flume bed where variation in particle reflection and damping effects were minor. The analysis of particle saltation trajectories revealed that the rising and falling limbs were almost symmetrical contradicting alluvial bed data. Furthermore, no or negligible effect of particle size and shape on particle dynamics were found. Implications of experimental findings for mechanistic saltation‐abrasion models are briefly discussed. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Single bed load particle impacts were experimentally investigated in supercritical open channel flow over a fixed planar bed of low relative roughness height simulating high‐gradient non‐alluvial mountain streams as well as hydraulic structures. Particle impact characteristics (impact velocity, impact angle, Stokes number, restitution and dynamic friction coefficients) were determined for a wide range of hydraulic parameters and particle properties. Particle impact velocity scaled with the particle velocity, and the vertical particle impact velocity increased with excess transport stage. Particle impact and rebound angles were low and decreased with transport stage. Analysis of the particle impacts with the bed revealed almost no viscous damping effects with high normal restitution coefficients exceeding unity. The normal and resultant Stokes numbers were high and above critical thresholds for viscous damping. These results are attributed to the coherent turbulent structures near the wall region, i.e. bursting motion with ejection and sweep events responsible for turbulence generation and particle transport. The tangential restitution coefficients were slightly below unity and the dynamic friction coefficients were lower than for alluvial bed data, revealing that only a small amount of horizontal energy was transferred to the bed. The abrasion prediction model formed by Sklar and Dietrich in 2004 was revised based on the new equations on vertical impact velocity and hop length covering various bed configurations. The abrasion coefficient kv was found to be vary around kv ~ 105 for hard materials (tensile strength ft > 1 MPa), one order of magnitude lower than the value assumed so far for Sklar and Dietrich's model. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Wear due to sediment particles in fluid flows, also termed 'hydroabrasion' or simply 'abrasion', is an omnipresent issue at hydraulic structures as well as in bedrock rivers. However, interactions between flow field, particle motion, channel topography, material properties and abrasion have rarely been investigated on a prototype scale, leaving many open questions as to their quantitative interrelations. Therefore, we investigated hydroabrasion in a multi-year field study at two Swiss Sediment Bypass Tunnels (SBTs). Abrasion depths of various invert materials, hydraulics and sediment transport conditions were determined and used to compute the abrasion coefficients k v of different abrasion models for high-strength concrete and granite. The results reveal that these models are useful to estimate spatially averaged abrasion rates. The k v -value is about one order of magnitude higher for granite than for high-strength concrete, hence, using material-specific abrasion coefficients enhances the prediction accuracy. Three-dimensional flow structures, i.e., secondary currents occurring both, in the straight and curved sections of the tunnels cause incision channels, while also longitudinally undulating abrasion patterns were observed. Furthermore, hydroabrasion concentrated along joints and protruding edges. The maximum abrasion depths were roughly twice the mean abrasion depths, irrespective of hydraulics, sediment transport conditions and invert material.Water 2020, 12, 469 2 of 27 prevailing hydraulics and sediment transport conditions in the SBTs, i.e., high-speed sediment-laden flows, can cause severe invert hydroabrasion, which provokes high maintenance cost and, in the worst case, endangering the tunnel stability [17].Hydroabrasion is a common phenomenon occurring not only in SBTs and at other hydraulic structures, e.g., weirs, flushing channels, bottom outlets and diversion tunnels, but also in high-gradient bedrock rivers. Hence, it plays an import role in river incision and landscape evolution. Hydroabrasion is defined as continuous material loss from a fixed, submerged surface caused by the contacts of solid particles transported in the flow [18,19]. Depending on the hydraulic conditions and sediment properties, such as size and shape, sediment particles can be transported in sliding, rolling, saltation, or suspension mode causing grinding, rolling, or saltation impact stresses on the surface, respectively. Among these, impacts of saltating bedload particles govern not only material loss at SBTs and hydraulic structures, but also long-term bedrock incision and landscape evolution by driving hydroabrasion and macroabrasion-a process of fracturing bedrock into pluckable sizes mediated by particle impacts [19][20][21][22][23].Prediction of hydroabrasion is crucial for design service life analysis of invert materials used in hydraulic structures as well as for landscape evolution studies with potential applications in steep bedrock channels and channel knickpoint evolutions of exposed bedrock, such as waterfall...