Determinación de la tasa de transporte de carga de lecho en ríos de montaña con pendientes entre el 4% y 10% y sedimento grueso, considerando material de lecho con una granulometría natural

Abstract

Sediment transport has been extensively studied, however, the most important studies reported in the literature have been developed for cases of low slope and sediment mainly fine. The transport of sediment in channels of mountain is characterized by steep slopes and the presence of great size material on his deathbed represents a complex process that generates disadvantages in the hydraulic structures as abstractions, reservoirs, among others, causing the loss of storage capacity and water catchment and sometimes leaving them out of service. Thus, there is evidence of the need to quantify more accurately the sediment transport process in this type of river. In this investigation, it was determined an empirical relationship to adequately quantify the rate of transport of bed load on the basis of a physical model that represents the conditions of a channel of mountain. A fundamental part of the characterization of this process is that the material implemented in the model was the granulometry of the Tabacay river´s bed. The study was carried out in the laboratory of Hydraulic & Fluid´s Dynamic of the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Cuenca. The correlation between the equation obtained experimentally with the values measured in the laboratory indicates that this equation is representative of the conditions present in the mountain rivers, as it has a goodness-of-fit with an R2 equal to 0.94. In addition, the values obtained with this equation are similar to the values of equations present in the literature that report analogous conditions that is why, it can be concluded that this equation can be applied as a valid tool for the determination of the rate of sediment transport in rivers of high slope.