On some aspects of flow characteristics of the bifurcated channel – An experimental approach

The purpose of this research is to get an overall idea about the physical process of discharge and sediment distributions in channel bifurcations. A physical model has been used for the experimental study of channel bifurcation corresponding to the river Kangsabati in the field. The study describes sediment distribution of different sediment sizes for a bifurcation angle of 37° (the angle between the tip of the nose and the symmetrical line of a bifurcation). A total of three different sizes of sediment (0.190 mm, 0.260 mm, and 0.275 mm) have been used to investigate the influence of sediment distribution over the branches. For each sediment size, four different upstream discharges (0.002, 0.004, 0.006, and 0.008 m3/sec) have been used. From the experiments, a set of data on s1/s2 and q1/q2 (where q1, q2, and s1, s2 are the discharge and sediment transport rate per unit width through respective bifurcated branches) have been collected. These data have been set to the nodal point relation (the relation between the ratio of downstream discharges and the ratio of the downstream sediment transport rates). The study so far performed is based on experimental data obtained from the physical model of channel bifurcation, and the results have been discussed in the present paper.