Log-jam effects on bed-load mobility from experiments conducted in a small gravel-bed forest ditch

Bed-load transport experiments have been conducted in a steep gravel-bed open ditch. This initially straight ditch has been neglected for many years and looks at present like a second-order natural stream channel. The channel flows through a spruce forest and several log-jams have produced chutes and pools, creating supplementary roughness. The total shear stress has been evaluated using the slope-hydraulic radius product, and the ratio between grain and bed-form shear stresses has been calculated using different methods. The shear stress has also been evaluated from the shear velocities, and this gives a good evaluation of the grain shear stress. Additional experiments have been conducted with marked pebbles to estimate particle mobility and to improve the motion equations. Equations such as θc = a(Di/D50)b)b, defined by Andrews, apply in these cases but the values of a and b are lower than those produced by this author. In a second stage of experimentation, we have destroyed the log jams resulting in a diminution of the roughness and critical shear stress (when the total shear stress is used), an increase of the grain shear stress, and thus greater bed particle mobility for the same discharge. It emerges from these experiments that the log-jams contribute to the reduction of bed-load evacuation and explain the very weak bed-load discharge measured by a bed-load trap (0.3 t · km−2 yr−1).