Velocity Profiles With Suspended Sediment

A re-analysis is presented of velocity profiles from which Coleman [3] concluded that κ is independent of suspended sediment concentration. It is found that the data from the three cited experiments actually show similar logarithmic layers beyond 10% water depth, reveal wall-interference on velocity readings in the region ≤ 10% water depth which is erroneously interpreted as the “true” logarithmic layer by Coleman, and are in agreement with other reported observations on the presence or absence of a wake flow region depending on bottom roughness. When corrected for wall interference for the lowermost data point per profile, Coleman's data confirm the conclusion of Vanoni [22], Einstein and Chien [6] and other workers that von Karman's constant decreases with increasing suspension load in turbulent flows.