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42 <br />The wide range of grain sizes leads to two important features of <br />bed heterogeneity, surface armoring and bimodal grain size distribu- <br />tions. Figure 21 reveals the armor nature of the surface bed material. <br />Figure 20 shows a bimodal distribution in the subsurface substrate <br />sizes. Transport modes depend on surface armoring and the availability <br />of the finer sizes. <br />The Helley-Smith load is significantly coarser than the suspended <br />sand load, but constitutes only 0.4% of the total load (Figure 22). <br />Only the size fractions smaller than 1.0 mm were suspended high enough <br />above the bed to be captured by the suspended sampler. The sediment <br />particles greater than 1.0 mm (coarse sand) could be captured only by <br />the Helley-Smith sampler and were not suspended higher than 3 inches <br />above the bed. The median particle size captured in the sampler was <br />0.42. This is approximately one hundred-seventy times smaller the <br />median bed material size indicating that all the transported sand is <br />wash load. The Helley-Smith load median diameter is also seventy times <br />smaller than the subsurface substrate. <br />The Helley-Smith sampler, from the peak flow (May 31) through June <br />24, collected gravels and cobbles moving on the bed. A total of 42 <br />coarse gravels greater than 19 mm and five small cobbles were captured <br />by the sampler. Most of the cobbles were disc-shaped. <br />Recent work by Andrews (1983) and Parker (1982) indicate that <br />particles as large as the median diameter of the river bed substrate are <br />entrained by discharges which equal or exceed the bankfull discharge. <br />Entrainment of a given size particle has been shown to be a function of <br />the bed material size distributions. Differential entrainment of the <br />coarse bed fraction occurs in a relatively narrow range of shear stress <br />(Andrews, 1983). From observations at Mathers Hole, the bedload <br />consisted of relatively few large gravels and cobbles at the peak <br />discharge, but included some of all particle sizes smaller than <br />the median substrate size. General motion of the entire bed was not <br />observed at Mathers Hole and changes in the cross section configuration <br />could not be detected. <br />Using the entrainment criteria developed by Andrews (1983) for <br />naturally sorted riverbed material, it has been determined that the <br />critical dimensionless shear stress is approximately equal to 0.03 for <br />the median substrate material (D5 = 75 mm). This is the same criteria <br />used in last year's analysis regerencing Parker's work (1982). The <br />ratio of the threshold particle diameter to the median particle diameter <br />of the subsurface bed material is the basis for determining the <br />incipient motion criteria in Andrews' analysis. <br />Mobilization of the median bed material particle will ensue at <br />approximately 21,500 cfs. All bed particles in the cobble reach, except <br />the very largest, will be entrained at this discharge which corresponds <br />to the bankfull discharge. Entrainment of the imbricated particles may <br />require a larger critical shear stress. There is no evidence to support <br />any prediction of large scale channel configuration change or erosion <br />below bankfull discharge which is required to create a mobile-bed <br />phenomenon. Evidence shows that even in a 'mobile bed' of coarse <br />particles, movement is limited to short leaps and hops, the bed load at <br />any instant still be relatively small (Butler, 1977).