Review of seepage effects on turbulent open-channel flow and sediment entrainment

This paper presents a review on the state-of-the-art knowledge of how seepage affects the turbulence characteristics in open-channel flow and its implication on sediment entrainment. Published literature shows that some effects have been intensively examined and the results are well known, such as seepage effects on mean flow velocity distributions. Understanding of the other effects remains rudimentary, such as variations of turbulence intensity and bed shear stresses. In fact, many of these issues remain ambiguous with contradicting inferences and conclusions. For example, the published literature is still not unanimous as to how turbulence intensities, bed shear stresses and bed particle stability change in the presence of seepage. By reviewing literature in this area published over the past 35 years, this paper highlights the main conflicting results and attempts to explain these deviations with certain recommendations.