STOCHASTIC ANALYSIS OF SALTATION DYNAMICS OF BED LOAD PARTICLES

A stochastic study on saltation may be useful in order to unify the theories of bed load motion and sediment suspension, because saltation can be regarded as an intermediate state of sediment motion. Generally, several or a few dozen times of saltations are continued by repulsions with a sand bed to constitute the so-called successive saltation. The irregularity of this phenomenon is caused by repulsions of a particle with a bed, and respective paths of individual saltations may be analyzed by a deterministic equation of motion. Such a system of sediment motion is analyzed by combining a stochastic approach with a deterministic one in this paper. By a simulation based on the derived model, the characteristics of individual saltation and successive saltation have been clarified.