Using both free surface effect and sediment transport mode parameters in defining the morphology of river dunes and their evolution to upper stage plane beds, doi: 10.1061/(ASCE)HY.1943-7900.0000873

Dunes are common bed forms in sand bed rivers and are of central interest in water management purposes. Due to flow separation and associated energy dissipation, dunes form the main source of hydraulic roughness. A large number of dune dimension data sets was compiled and analyzed in this study—414 experiments from flumes and the field—showing a significantly different evolution of dune height and length in flows with low Froude numbers (negligible free surface effects) and flows with high Froude numbers (large free surface effects). For high Froude numbers (0.32–0.84 ), relative dune heights are observed to grow only in the bed load dominant transport regime and start to decay for u ∗ /w s (suspension number) exceeding 1. Dunes in this case are not observed for suspension numbers greater than 2.5. For low Froude numbers (0.05–0.32), relative dune heights continue to grow from the bed load to suspended load dominant transport regime. Dunes in this case are not observed for suspension numbers greater than 5. It was concluded that for reliable predictions of dune morphology and their evolution to upper stage plane beds, it is essential to address both free surface effects and sediment transport mode.