Experiments on Particle Sorting and Partial Bed-load Transport

This study explore the complex dynamics of partial bed-load transport in a series of well-controlled laboratory experiments. Observations show that moving particles may experience bimodal transport (i.e., coexistence of long trapping time and large jump length) related to bed coarsening and the formation of clusters on a heterogeneous gravel-bed, which is distinguished from the traditional theory of hiding-exposing interactions among mixed-size particles. A fractional derivative model is finally applied to characterize the overall behavior of partial bed-load transport, including the coexistence of the sub-diffusion and non-local feature caused by turbulence and the micro-relief within an armor layer.