Estimating Critical Stream Power by the Distribution of Gravel-bed Materials in the Meandering River

The distribution of gravel-bed materials in mountainous river is formed by the process of deposition and transportation of sediment responding to stream power of the latest flood that is over the certain scale. The particle size of bed material was surveyed in the longitudinal points of river and detail points of a specific meandering section and used to estimate the critical velocity and stream power. Yang`s critical unit stream power and Bagnold`s critical stream power for gravel-bed materials increased with the distance from downstream to upstream. Dimensionless shear stress based on the designed flood discharge in Shields diagram was evaluated that the gravel-bed materials in most survey points may be transported as form of bedload. The mean diameter in the meandering section was the biggest size in first water impingement point of inflow water from upstream and the second big size in second water impingement point by reflection flow. The mean diameters were relatively the small sizes in points right after water impingement. The range of mean critical velocity was 0.77~2.60 m/s and critical unit stream power was big greatly in first water impingement point. The distribution of critical stream power, range of 7~171 , was shown that variation in longitudinal section was more obvious than that of cross section and estimated that critical stream power may be affected greatly in first and second water impingement point.