First Step Away from Laceye's Regime Equations

In 1987, we concluded that Lacey's silt factor f was really a measure of the sediment transport capacity of the canals that Lacey studied. In fact, for canals carrying 0.1 to 0.3 mm sand at low velocities, f = C/91.7. Here C = sand concentration in mg/l. This expression is valid for slow flowing canals transporting a very small load. The concentration must be less than 100 mg/l and the velocity between 0.5 and 2.5 ft/s (0.15 to 0.75 m/s). With this new expression, we have reformulated Lacey's regime equations in terms of sediment concentration instead of silt factor. By replacing the silt factor with the concentration, the regime equations become more useful and have a better theoretical foundation.