Research Projects

The study aims to investigate the behavior of erosion in non-cohesive sediment mixtures over slopping beds, which is crucial for solving problems related to sediment and soil erosion in catchments, reservoir sedimentation, river morphology, and aquatic ecosystems. The rise of anthropological intervention in natural river systems in the Indian subcontinent has significantly affected the hydrodynamic and ecological health of rivers. Construction of cross drainage structures and dams at the young stage of perennial rivers have radically altered the flow energy and resulted in abnormal changes in prototype sediment characteristics, affecting bed roughness and flow dynamics. Experimental research has been conducted to understand the mechanisms of sediment transport and characterize the incipient motion of sediment particles, but few have studied beds constituted with bimodal mixtures, particularly non-cohesive gravel and sand mixtures. The related mechanisms are complex and remain not well explored, especially for heterogeneous sediment of non-cohesive sediment beds containing silt, sand, and gravel sized particles. The research aims to provide new data on flow turbulence, incipient motion, morpho-dynamic evolution of bed form, and size-sorting processes to the active layer of silt-sand-gravel mixture over differently inclined sloping beds in a laboratory tilting flume with dissimilar discharges. The outcome will be beneficial for quantification and prediction of bed load transportation and sorting processes over mountain rivers.