Experimental study on the formation of alternate bars with fixed and loose banks

CARRASCO A; VIONNET CA; VALENTINE EM; BATHURST JC

Cayastá, Prov. SFe, Argentina

Workshop; Morphodynamic Processes in Large Lowland Rivers; 2007

NCED (the National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics – a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center), FICH-UNL

The formation of alternate bars and their subsequent evolution in sandy bed rivers are relevant aspects for fluvial engineers involved in the design of flood defense works and riverbank protection structures. In this communication, a comparative study to analyze the influence between loose and fixed banks under identical bed slope, water discharge and sediment flux is presented, whose aim is to clarify if the formation of alternate bars is indeed the preferred evolving spatial scale of the problem, delaying the lateral migration of the streambed for much longer time scales.