Sediment in Sewers: Initiation of Transport

The initiation of sediment transport in sewers was investigated in field and laboratory studies. From the field studies it was concluded that some deposits in sewers are permanent due to the insufficient capability of the flow to erode the deposits. From the laboratory studies it was concluded that the upper limit of the critical shear stresses for cohesive sewer sediments may not exceed 5-7 N/m2. Non-cohesive sediments are eroded at lower shear stresses than predicted by Shields' criterion. The shear stresses were calculated using the general equations of continuity and motion and Einstein's separation technique for channels of compound roughness. Experiments showed the validity of this method.