Physics Commons^™

River Meandering Dynamics, Boyd F. Edwards, D. H. Smith

All Physics Faculty Publications

The Ikeda, Parker, and Sawai river meandering model is reexamined using a physical approach employing an explicit equation of motion. For periodic river shapes as seen from above, a cross-stream surface elevation gradient creates a velocity shear that is responsible for the decay of small-wavelength meander bends, whereas secondary currents in the plane perpendicular to the downstream direction are responsible for the growth of large-wavelength bends. A decay length D=H/2C_f involving the river depth H and the friction coefficient C_f sets the scale for meandering, giving the downstream distance required for the fluid velocity profile to recover from …