DEPTH-INTEGRATED MODELING FOR AGGRADING/DEGRADING MOBILE CHANNELS I： MODEL DEVELOPMENT

A depth-integrated model has been developed to simulate the alluvial process of channel bed under overloading and under-loading sediment discharge conditions. The hydrodynamic sub-model based on the explicit-finite-analytic method is used to obtain the flow field. Then the sediment transport modes, including the bed-load and suspended load, are modeled with the aid of the empirically auxiliary relations. In the depth-integrated model, the sediment exchange rate is treated as a source term specified at the reference level, rather than a boundary condition as usually adopted in vertical 2-D or 3-D models. The deposition or erosion rate of the bed is then determined by comparing the flow-laden suspended-sediment concentration profile against the equilibrium concentration profile, and their difference is used to compute the sediment exchange rate for a given time interval. Assessment of the good accuracy of the proposed model is demonstrated by using van Rijn＇s （1981） experiment for the case of clear water passing a movable bed. In the companion paper, the verification and the field application of the proposed model are presented.