Research Projects

Measurement of bed load in rivers is important for its application in river engineering. However, the physics of bed load transport is not well understood primarily due to the difficulties in measuring the bed load. Direct measurement techniques are available (eg. physical trap which screens the particles). These are not suitable for river flow with large slope values, larger size bed load particles and heavy flow of bed load. The project will investigate the development, processing and fusion of multiple sensor output, including acoustic, optical, hydrophones, microphones, geophones, accelerometers, and piezoelectric sensors, to model sediment transport and water circulation in river settings, which is essential to improve predictions of bed load measurements. The objectives of the proposed research are to: (i) develop a device for bed sediment load measurement in mountainous streams and in laboratory flumes by deploying multiple sensors; (ii) develop a data acquisition system and dissemination of data through wireless networking; (iii) develop a laboratory based calibration procedure which can replace the field calibration for such devices; and, (iv) develop a software to analyse the data obtained by the device. This study is based on the following methodology: (i) Laboratory scale experiments to assess the capabilities of different sensors reported in literature for bed load measurement; (ii) Quantifying characteristics of sensors (calibration) by comparing with observations from optics based sensors; (iii) Exploring use of multiple sensors to measure bed load transport; (iv) Experiments in the field with developed device. (v) Calibration in the field against direct measurement by Helley-Smith sampler and indirect measurement by Swiss plate geophone; (vi) Developing a data acquisition system and data dissemination procedure through wireless networking; (vii) Developing a software through signal and image processing; (viii) Study and develop signal processing and image processing techniques necessary to obtain numerous real-time surface velocities, and topographical/landscape changes. (ix) Coupling river discharge models with sensor fusion techniques to enhance detection robustness and to improve the reliability of models. (x) Studying the use of autonomous operation of sensors for remote sensing. These sensing systems are subject to potentially harsh environmental conditions, low data laboratory rate for communication, and severe energy limitations (rechargeable battery coupled to a solar panel). The envisaged outputs from this study are two similar devices to measure bed load sediment transport, one for the mountainous streams and the other for the laboratory flumes. The study is expected to result in one patent and several good-quality journal publications.

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Aquasense Private Limited, New Delhi; K C Engineers Ltd, Ambala Cantt