Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 74 (2010) 163170

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Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering

j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / p e t r o l

Pinpointing the key parameters that control the errors in estimating the total-load
sediment ux using sand particles measured data in reservoir engineering
Saeed Khorram a,, Mostafa Jafari b,1
a
Postdoc Candidate, IC3 Fundaci Institut Catal de Cincies del Clima, Barcelona Spain
b
Ph.D. Candidate, Mechanical Eng. Dept. Faculty of Eng., Eastern Mediterranean University, Gazimagosa, North Cyprus

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Sediment deposition is the principal problem affecting the useful life of reservoirs. Knowledge of both the
Received 4 June 2010 rate and pattern of sediment deposition in a reservoir is required to predict the types of service impairments
Accepted 18 August 2010 which will occur, the time frame in which they will occur, and the types of remedial strategies which may be
practicable. The present analysis details the importance of physical properties to the total-load sediment
Keywords: uxes using ve equations, measured sand particles and suggests which properties have more control on the
ANNs
nal result by providing insight into the relative strengths, weaknesses and limitations. The authors
Reservoir engineering
Sediment transport measured data
concentrated on available eld and ume data sets gathered from different reliable sources, rather than
Sand particles ux focusing entirely on total-load equations. Articial neural network (ANNs) method was used to validate this
Sensitivity analysis study. Several graphs and statistical analysis were presented to emphasize the inuencing effect of those
Total-load inuencing parameters parameters that were detected by ANNs and are directly controlling the error in the total-load sediment ux
using measured sand particle data sets.
2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Many type of sediment-related problems can occur both upstream

Surface erosion, sediment transport, scour, and deposition have
been the subjects of study by engineers and geologists for centuries,
due to their importance to economic and cultural development.
Sediment movement in reservoir has been studied by both hydraulic
engineers and earth scientists for centuries because of its importance
in the understanding uvial hydraulics, reservoir engineering, river
morphology, dam and reservoir designs, irrigation projects and other
related subjects. This phenomenon is very complex and often subject
to semi-empirical or empirical treatments because theoretical studies
can only be performed in simple or simplied cases, hence, it should
be used with much caution (Pinto et al., 2006; Bhattacharya et al.,
2007).
Storage loss is but one of many sedimentation problems that can
affect reservoirs. Operation of storage reservoirs is severely impacted
by the time half the volume has been sediment, but severe sediment-
related problems can appear when only a small percentage of the
storage capacity has been lost. As reservoirs age and sediments
continue to accumulate, sediment-related problems will increase in
severity and more sites will be affected. At any dam or reservoir where
sustainable long-term use is to be achieved, it will be necessary to
manage sediments as well as water. This is not a trivial challenge.
Corresponding author. Tel.: + 34 573 590 2351.
E-mail addresses: saeedkhorram@gmail.com (S. Khorram), m.jafari98@gmail.com
(M. Jafari).
1
Tel.: + 90 533 872 5946.
and downstream of dams, and sediment entrainment can also
interfere with the benecial use of diverted water. Sediment can
enter and obstruct intakes and greatly accelerate abrasion of hydraulic
machinery, thereby decreasing its efciency and increasing mainte-
nance costs. Turbid density currents can carry sediments tens of
kilometers along the bottom of the impoundment, eventually
entering deep intakes and accumulating in front of low level outlets.
Total-load transport models are often very complex and subject to
semi-empirical or empirical equilibrium transport equations that
relate sediment uxes to physical properties such as velocity, depth
and characteristic total-load sediment particle sizes.
Total-load transport formulas have not been tested extensively
over medium spatial and temporal scales. The lack of such testing is
undoubtedly due to the paucity of eld data available for testing at
these scales (Martin, 2003). Yet no commonly accepted rules for the
evaluation of sediment transport models exist.
Nonetheless, research is required to further evaluate the ability of
transport equations to predict phenomena of interest to geomorphol-
ogists, such as trends in aggradation and degradation. The dredging
activity may have loosened the bed structure or resulted in
disequilibrium morphology, thereby increasing sediment movement
and inuencing critically in maintaining ecological diversity and
habitat in stream channels (Lisle, 1989).
Sedimentation problems and management techniques vary widely
from one site to another, and by studying specic sites one can
appreciate the complexity of sediment problems and the manner in
which they can be addressed Deposition patterns also reect

0920-4105/$ see front matter 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.petrol.2010.08.014
164 S. Khorram, M. Jafari / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 74 (2010) 163170

transport processes in the reservoir and can provide information on
sediment delivery and distribution processes that may not be
ascertainable from other data. This chapter provides an overview of
the types of depositional and erosional patterns which occur in
reservoirs and presents basic computational methods related to
measuring and predicting deposition.
To handle this, different researchers attempted to tackle this
problem from various approaches. Gomez and Church (1989)
introduced the term s/(s ) by converting the immersed weight
to dry weight, the latter being standard in most uvial transport
formulas. However, error analysis and corroboration of transport rates
at Vedder Crossing (Ham and Church, 2000) suggest that error in the
eld data cannot alone explain these discrepancies. Discrepancies
may possibly be due in large part to the inability of generalized
formulas in straightforward applications to capture the true com-
plexity of the channel hydraulics and bed conditions (Martin and
Church, 1995).
The lack of these terms in the widely used total sediment load ux
formulas available in the literature represents a potential weakness as
changes in grain-size distributions for a particular river or between
different rivers which were not accounted for in calculations. On the
basis of this and earlier studies, the authors recommend that a
research has to be conducted to more thoroughly investigate the
reasons why total sediment load ux formulas appear to consistently
under predict transport rates over medium time scales and to
determine the key parameters that controls the error so as to improve
the reliability of the total-load sediment ux predictions.
Although several scholars working in this problem suggest
different dimensional or dimensionless physical parameters, unfor-
tunately they could not solve the problem yet universally in order to
pinpoint the key parameters that control the errors in detecting this
sediment ux capacity.
The primary reservoir sediment problem is the deposition of
sediment in the reservoir. The determination of the sediment
accumulation over the life of the project is the basis for the sediment
reserve. Typical storage diagrams of reservoirs, showing sediment (or
dead) storage at the bottom of the pool can be misleading. While the
reservoir storage capacity may ultimately ll with sediment, the
distribution of the deposits can be a signicant concern during the life
of the project. The reservoir sedimentation study should forecast
sediment accumulation and distribution over the life of the project.
Sediment deposits in the backwater area of the reservoir may form
deltas, particularly in shallow reservoirs.
Although several scholars like Velikanov (1954), Yalin (1977), and
Yang and Wan (1991) worked in this problem and suggests different
dimensionless parameters, unfortunately, they could not solve the
problem universally.
Noting that the total-load transport functions are often based on
semi-empirical equilibrium transport equations that relate sediment
motion to physical properties such as velocity, depth, and character-
istic sediment particle sizes etc. though, most of the total-load
sediment ux formulas are one-dimensional, non-linear functions
where local hydraulic parameters were involved (Vanoni, 1975).
In the literature, in fact, the selected methods, approaches and
even the utilized dimensional and dimensionless parameters, create
confusions among researchers on how to select the best representa-
tive equation since each equation has its own validity and range of
applicability within its data set (Zhang and McConnachie, 1994;
Martin, 2003 and Sinnakaudan et al., 2006). However, no wholly
objective or universally applicable guidelines exist to facilitate the
selection of an appropriate formula (Garde and Raju, 1978). In fact,
the sediment transport function is the most complex procedure that
has been developed to predict the sediment discharge in natural
streams to date (Simon and Senturk, 1976).
Most transport equations are unlikely to represent a fundamental
or even a complete correlation. This is because their performance
essentially depends on the reliability and representativeness of the
data utilized in the denition of reference values, constants, and other
relevant coefcients (Wu et al., 2000). The basic approaches used in
the derivation of total-load transport functions are: regime, regres-
sion, probabilistic, and deterministic approaches. In most of the
studies, a regime channel (an alluvial channel in dynamic equilibri-
um) model without noticeable long-term aggradations, degradations,
or change of channel geometry and prole were studied and that is
why some researchers believe that, sediment transport is such a
complex phenomenon that, no single hydraulic parameter or
combination of parameters can be found to describe sediment
transport rate under all conditions. Hence, instead of trying to nd a
dominant variable that can determine the rate of total-load transport,
they recommend the use of regressions based on laboratory and/or
eld data (Wong and Parker, 2006). The parameters used in these
regression equations through probabilistic approach may or may not
have any physical meaning relating to the mechanics of total-load
transport functions. Einstein and Yang are the pioneers of this
approach, since they assumed that, the beginning and ceasing of
sediment motion can be expressed in terms of probability (Yang,
1996). On the other hand, the basic assumption in the deterministic
approach is the existence of one-to-one relationship between
independent and dependent variables.
2. Scope of this study
The conventional, dominant and independent variables used in
most of the sediment transport studies are the water discharge Q, the
average ow velocity vav, the shear stress at the bed o, and the
energy (water surface) slope Sf. More recently, the use of the stream
power ovav, the unit stream power vavSf and the gravitational
theory have gained increasing acceptance as being important
parameters for the determination of sediment transport rate or
concentration. Other predominantly govern independent parameters

Table 1
Physical properties and their selected representative values used in this research.

Property type Physical properties Values Remarks

Independent Sediment median size ds (mm) Sand: (0.088; 0.177; 0.354; 0.707; 1.41) Five distinct values for each category
gravel: (2.83; 5.66; 11.3; 22.6; 45.3)
1
Bed slope Sf (mm ) 0.0005; 0.0004; 0.0003; 0.0002; 0.0001; 0.00005 Six distinct mild slope values
Temperature T (C) 5; 15; 20; 25; 30 Five distinct values
Sediment specic gravity Gs Sand: (2.65; 2.66; 2.67; 2.68) Four distinct values for each category
Gravel: (2.65; 2.66; 2.67; 2.68)
Dependent Manning's roughness coefcient n (sm1/3) 0.01; 0.02; 0.03; 0.04; 0.05 Five distinct values for each category
irrespective to sediment grain size
3
Density of water (kg m ) 995.7; 997.1; 998.2; 999.1; 1000 Determined based on the previously selected
distinct temperature values
3
Dynamic viscosity of water (Pa s) 10 1.518; 1.139; 1.002; 0.890; 0.798 Determined based on the previously mentioned
selected distinct temperature values
 S. Khorram, M. Jafari / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 74 (2010) 163170 165

used in sediment transport functions are the representative sediment
particle diameter ds, the water temperature T or its effect on the
absolute viscosity of water . Since the accuracy of the deterministic
sediment transport equations depend on the generality and validity of
the assumption of whether a unique relationship between dependent
and independent variables exists or not, the deterministic sediment
transport equations can be expressed in one of the following forms:
the Shear Stress , the Energy Slope Sf, the Discharge Q, the Average
Flow Velocity vav, the Stream Power v, the Unit Stream Power vSf,
the Equal Mobility, the Power Balance and the Gravitational Power
(Graf, 2001; Yang, 2006). Hence, this study provides an attempt, to
enlighten researchers about the widely used total-load transport
equations from another perspective. Emphases are placed on basic
concepts and ndings upon which the knowledge of sediment
transport is based, rather than on the mathematical derivations.
The aim of this study is to determine the most reliable parameters
that are directly or indirectly inuencing the equations and measured
(eld/ume) dataset. These parameters will help researchers to
develop a better prediction by comparing the existing ones. It
shouldn't be forgotten that, there are a large number of independent

Table 2
Selected total-load transport equations, their range of applicability, and the best ve inuencing parameters out of 50 suggested by the authors.

No Name and approacha Formula Range of applicability Parameters suggested

by authorsb
1 Engelund and Hansen (1967) qt = Cw q 0:15d50 0:93mm 1 2 3 4 5
Energy balance concept
  0:5 Re N 12
Gs vav Sf Rh Sf
(Engelund and Hansen, 1967) Cw = 0:05
Gs 1 Gs 1gd50 1 = 2 Gs 1d50
 
2 Yang (1972) Energy balance qt = vav Cpmm 106
 0:15d50 1:71mm

u
concept (Yang, 2006) s d50 Cppm N 100 ppm 3 2 4 1 5
logCppm = 5:435  0:286 log 0:457 log s 0:23bvav b1:97m = s



 0:043 103 Sf 27:9 103

+ 1:7990:409 log
s d50

0:314 log
u
s


log
vav Sf vcr Sf
s

s  v
cr
s

2:5 u d50 u d50

= 0:06 + 0:66 for 1:2b 70
log

 
3 Yang (1972) Energy balance qt = vav Cpmm 106 0:15d50 1:71mm 1 4 2 3 5




concepts (Yang, 2006) s d50 u Cppm N 100 ppm
logCppm 5:165  0:153 log 0:297 log 0:23bvav b1:97m = s
s



 0:043 103 Sf 27:9 103
s d50 u vav Sf
+ 1:7800:36 log 0:480 log log
s s


vav Sf vcr
log
s s

2:5 u d50 u d50

= 0:06 + 0:66for1:2b 70
log
2 31n w
6 7
6 vav 7
6 7
0:5
4 Ackers and White (1973,1990) Fgr = un w gd50 Gs 1 6s

 7 0:04d50 4:0mm 1 2 5 2 4
Energy balance concepts 4 10yo 5 Fr0:8
32 log
d50 0:022vav 2:44m = s
(Yang, 2006)
( A = 0:17 0:183 103 Sf 1:13 103

n w
m 1:0Gs 2:7
Gs d50 vav Fgr A C = 0:025
CW = C ; D N 60
yo u A m = 1:78
nw = 0
if : 1
(
A = 0:23d0:5
gr + 0:14 (
A = 0:17
logC = 3:46 + 2:79 logdgr
 2 C = 0:025
bD b60 0:98 logdgr ; D 1
m = 1:78
1
m = 6:83dgr + 1:67
nw = 1
nw = 1:000:56logdgr

1430 0:86 + 1:5

5 Molinas and Wu (2000) qt = q Ct ; Ct = 0.1 d50 0.8(mm) 1 3 2 4 5
0:016 +
Gravitational power
v3av
(Molinas and Wu, 2000) =
 
 2
s Rh
g Rh s log10
s d50

Note: aThe last line in each row of the second (name and approach) column indicates the cited reference.
b
Details of the abbreviations suggested by the authors for dimensional and dimensionless parameters used in ANN analysis are listed in the notation section.
166 S. Khorram, M. Jafari / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 74 (2010) 163170

Table 3
Details of reservoirs.
   

Proving ground Date Number of verticals Xc, km U xa, cm/s xa; 103 g/cm3 (zu)xa, m (Riu)xa S za, mg/l (f)xa, 103 cm/s

Nurek Reservoir Sept. 3, 1976 9 20 18 0.8 20 4 1200 70

Nurek Reservoir Aug. 21, 1977 10 18 27 1.6 23 5 2600 76
Nurek Reservoir Sept. 21, 1978 6 4.2 13 0.5 22 7 240 16
Nurek Reservoir Aug. 16, 1980 8 7 21 1 21 6 1300 44
Nurek Reservoir Oct. 11, 1982 9 15.4 13 0.4 12 3 18 21
Mozhaisk Reservoir July 1011, 1996 18 26 7 0.5 5 30 9 7.4
Mozhaisk Reservoir July 910, 1997 16 24 3 1 6 70 14 2
Ivankovo Reservoir July 25, 1998 9 15 13 0.2 9 1 16 26
Ivankovo Reservoir July 1314, 1999 15 64.3 8 0.4 11 10 17 5
Ozerna Reservoir July 2, 2000 6 18 4 0.15 3 5 9 3
Ruza Reservoir June 28, 2000 8 29 4 0.14 4 5 9 4
Istra Reservoir July 5, 2000 9 16.3 4 0.18 6 13 9 0.8
Istra Reservoir July 11, 2001 10 11.7 3 0.12 5 8 8 1.7
Istra Reservoir July 1315 8 15.4 4 0.2 5 4 9 5
Istra Reservoir July 16, 2001 9 16.3 3 0.2 5 8 8 2
Istra Reservoir July 18, 2002 10 16.3 5 0.33 4 11 11 0.6
Vazuza Reservoir July 27, 2004 10 15.8 3 0.3 5 19 14 1.6
Lake Imandra July 29, 1999 4 3 3 0.17 3 0.7 9 1.5
Teletskoe Lake July 22, 2003 10 9.5 9 0.04 12 1 2 12
Teletskoe Lake July 27, 2004 10 10 8 0.07 11 2.3 2 12

Xc is the section length.

U ow velocity.
the difference between the liquid density in the ow and above it.
S the concentration.
f the suspension settling velocity.
z u thickness of current.
Riu integral Richardson numbers.

variables and parameters both dimensional and dimensionless that 3. Methodology

are inuencing the mechanism of the total-load transport process.
The general formula that relates the sediment ux to physical
properties can be written as
Cppm = f 1 ; :::; n
where i is a set of physical property that describes the sediments, or
the forcing uid, or its state.
For total-load transport, the compilation of several laboratory and
eld data sets was considered. This is considered to be one of the best
collections of total-load transport data sets and was prepared after a
careful scrutiny of a large number of available data sets. It consists of
data characterizing the equilibrium total-load transport of coarse sand
and gravel over a bed either at or with low angle bed forms and with
the Froude number not exceeding 1.0. In this study a total of 20 sets of
data collected from various river stations were gathered from the
dependable sources of previous works of several researchers
(Brownlie, 1981 ; Gomez and Church, 1989 and Arifn et al. 2001,
2002;).
To compare and demonstrate their performances on the measured
data, a water-sediment mixture of liquid and solid phase, their
effective characters due to liquid phase (water) and solid phase
(sediment particles) were classied separately and a total of 50
governing dimensional and dimensionless parameters were intro-
duced by the authors.
For this study, depending on the validity and the availability of
those governing inputs, allows the authors to generate a data set that
Most of the sediment transport equations were derived under the
assumption that, they could be determined from a dominant variable.
In most cases, these equations were supported by limited data
collected under carefully designed laboratory conditions. Because of
1
the lack of generality of the assumption used, when such an equation
is applied to other ow conditions, the agreement is often poor.
Hence, the results from different sediment transport equations were
differ drastically from each other and from the measurements.
Table 1 details the inuential physical properties that were
investigated in this research along with their realistic ranges. The
authors suggested four to six distinct values for practical application,
depending on certain physical properties.
The accuracy of the total sediment load transport ux may vary
with changing ow and sediment conditions. To determine the
governing key parameters a total of 50 dimensional or dimensionless
parameters were generated by the authors that were directly or
indirectly available in most of the widely used total-load equations.
Sensitivity analysis (SA) was carried out so as to pinpoint the effect of
these parameters on the ve equations (Table 2) and measured (eld/
ume) concentration values (Table 3) with respect to these 50
parameters. Selecting the concentration values as a dependent
variable implies that, the scale difference between laboratory umes
Table 4
Typical ANN setup for sensitivity analysis.
Structure Feedforward

varies depending on the available measured data for each river. Since Algorithm Back propagation
different measured data sets having different physical characteristics Type of training Trainlm
Network structure 15, h and 1
were utilized, to compare their outputs, the sediment concentration
Transfer function Sigmoid and linear
(Cppm) values of each data were used as a standardized non- Number of iterations 1000 (max epoch)
dimensional output. Hence, this makes the comparison not only Performance function Root Mean square error (RMSE) = 0.00001
more efcient because usually the discharges are expressed either by Data scaling Standard deviation and mean
volume or by weight per channel width but also indirectly the side Learning rate 0.01
Momentum 0.95
effect inuences were as well excluded.
 S. Khorram, M. Jafari / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 74 (2010) 163170 167

Table 5
Statistical comparison between the average of ve total-load equations for sand (d50 = 0.354 (mm)).

No Formula name Data in range of discrepancy ratio Error Skewness coefcient RMSE Inequality coefcient MNE Average geometric
deviation AGD
Rd (%) V (%) Csx U

1 Englund and Hansen (1967) 0.165 16.461 82.774 0.219 979.189 0.225 2.603
2 Molinas and Wu (2000) 0.194 19.434 54.860 0.291 1000.822 0.228 2.927
3 Yang (1972) 0.268 26.841 5.326 0.388 1025.247 0.232 3.398
4 Yang (1996) 0.272 27.205 10.173 0.409 1159.836 0.238 4.373
5 Akers and White (1973,1990) 0.388 38.783 100.948 0.434 1275.868 0.240 4.810

and large rivers eld data were eliminated. The approach applied in
this study however, does not provide much physical meaning to the
parameter used in the equations but to some extent does improve the
understanding of sediment transport processes.
For a better appreciation of the validity of these 50 parameters, the
sensitivity analysis (SA) process utilizing the Articial neural network
second connection of hidden layer. The rst connection is for input
and hidden layer and the second connection is for hidden node and
output layer. It computes each set of input and output data. If the
network has bias, the equation becomes:
J

1 1 2 2
(ANNs) technique was used to analyze the relationship between the S=O wij H + bij wij + bij 4
J =1
dependent (response) variables (i.e., the suggested dimensional an
dimensionless parameters) and the independent (explanatory)

 
variable (i.e., the concentration). f O J 1 f H 1 2 2
S= wij + bij wij + bij 5
X J = 1 X
3.1. Sensitivity analysis
By using Eq. (4), the value for each input corresponding to a single
Sensitivity analysis is a risk model that can be used to identify the and multiple outputs can be obtained. All ANN models for sensitivity
most signicant factors and aid in developing priorities for risk analysis use the training data to perform sensitivity value. By referring
mitigation in environmental changes (Jones, 2000). It is used in to sensitivity value, the input variables can be ranked for their
identifying the important uncertainties for the purpose of prioritizing contribution to the output. The results with a value more than 1
the parameters under investigation and plays an important role in represent major factors and the value less than 1 represents minor
verication and validation throughout the research development and factor.
renement (Frey and Bharvirkar, 1998). Prior to ANN application, an approach is required to make the
network structure optimum in order to achieve generalized and high
3.2. Articial neural network accuracy network with high simulation effect. During training, ANN
will learn from input data and adjust the weight smoothly to give
SA with partial differential is based on calculation of input, weights desired output. According to (Maren, Harston and Pap, 1990), the
and output variables from the ANN simulation. The calculation of number of hidden layer depends on the data, which can be
sensitivity, S is as follows determined through training. More number of hidden layer causes

high effect for training and will produce unstable network (Radhak-
J
O 1 2 rishnan and Mohamed, 2000) but it produces better results (Crowther
S= = O wij H wij 2
I J =1 and Cooper, 2001) The suitability of effect and accuracy must be
considered. Trial and error method is usually applied to get the


f O J 1 f H 2 optimum nodes and layer numbers (Maren, Harston and Pap, 1990).
S= wij wij 3
X J = 1 X High number of hidden layer/nodes causes a high effect for training,

Where O is output and H is a hidden node that have to be

differentiated, w1ij and w2ij are the weights with respect to the rst and

Fig. 1. Six most inuent parameters suggested by the author in the total-load equation Fig. 2. Six most inuent parameters suggested by the author in the total-load
for sand particle size. equipment for sand particle size.
168 S. Khorram, M. Jafari / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 74 (2010) 163170

but usually gives better prediction. In contrast to that, less number
layer/node gives incorrect prediction. As a result, to nd an optimum
structure through the trial and error method, effect for training,
number of iterations and square error achieved by network with
different hidden node as indicated by h in Table 4 should be
considered. In this research, only a single hidden layer is employed
referring to Kolmogorov's theorem (Frey and Bharvirkar, 1998).
Briey stated, Kolmogrov claimed that a single hidden layer or a three
layer back propagation network is enough to map any function to very
high precision and better prediction.
After obtaining the optimum structure for all 5 models of
simulation (4 for each output and 1 for all output), the SAANN is
carried out. A ThinkPro software version 1.05 is utilized. This window
base software provides the sensitivity analysis after data simulation
by ANN.
3.3. Outputs
To verify the results, the respective measured datasets were
compared using relevant statistical measures, and computed results
were categorized based on their closeness to those measured datasets.
The commonly used statistical measures by many researchers to
indicate the goodness of t between the computed and measured
results are: the discrepancy ratio Rd, the error analysis V, the
skewness coefcient Csx, the root mean squared error RMSE, Thiel's
inequality coefcient U, the mean normalized error MNE, the
average geometric deviation AGD and Pearson correlation coefcient
rxy.

Table 6
4. Result and discussion
Ranking number and correlation coefcient between dimensionless intensity of total-
load rate and the well-known parameters based on the measured datasets.
The gathered ve equations and 20 total-load measured (eld/
No. Well-known Sand particles
ume) data sets with the help of SA through ANN approach were
(widely used)
parameters
Number Particle diameter Correlation Ranking studied statistically and presented in tables and graphically. Table 4
of runs d50(mm) coefcient numberc details the summary of the statistical analysis of each data set groups
1 Dimensionless particle 35 0.088 0.869 24 utilized.
parameter 120 0.305 0.878 24
61 1.710 0.845 24 1- The fore total-load transport equations were compared with
2 Froude number 35 0.088 0.854 19 statistically diverse measured datasets using relevant, widely
120 0.305 0.848 19 used statistical measures. The seven different statistical error
61 1.710 0.827 19
estimation measures detailed earlier (Rd,V,C sx ,RMSE,U,MNE,
3 Relative shear stress 35 0.088 0.834 22
120 0.305 0.831 22 andAGD) were adopted to indicate the goodness of t between
61 1.710 0.815 22 the computed and measured results as shown in Table 5. The
4 Dimensionless unit 35 0.088 0.822 12 statistical measure analyses revealed large errors (deviations)
stream power 120 0.305 0.775 12
61 1.710 0.879 12
5 Shear stress 35 0.088 0.840 110
120 0.305 0.808 110
61 1.710 0.824 110 Table 7
6 Energy slope 35 0.088 0.802 210 Correlation coefcient between the dimensionless intensity of the total-load rate and
120 0.305 0.805 210 the best inuential parameters (suggested by authors) based on the measured datasets.
61 1.710 0.808 210
7 Average ow velocity 35 0.088 0.742 52 Sand
120 0.305 0.766 52
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
61 1.710 0.715 52
8 Stream power 35 0.088 0.762 13 35 0.088 0.963 0.952 0.946 0.940 0.932
120 0.305 0.798 13 10 0.105 0.967 0.960 0.954 0.943 0.974
61 1.710 0.761 13 11 0.145 0.934 0.961 0.963 0.923 0.986
9 Unit stream power 35 0.088 0.636 10 103 0.150 0.987 0.956 0.951 0.954 0.987
120 0.305 0.697 10 41 0.160 0.987 0.966 0.959 0.952 0.985
61 1.710 0.666 10 28 0.180 0.972 0.953 0.976 0.967 0.974
10 Equal mobility 35 0.088 0.669 21 40 0.190 0.982 0.972 0.976 0.925 0.913
120 0.305 0.635 21 11 0.230 0.990 0.961 0.950 0.963 0.953
61 1.710 0.653 21 22 0.250 0.951 0.953 0.940 0.964 0.935
11 Shield's parameters 35 0.088 0.641 42 25 0.270 0.965 0.961 0.933 0.954 0.931
120 0.305 0.631 42 36 0.280 0.960 0.976 0.966 0.921 0.912
61 1.710 0.625 42 12 0.290 0.976 0.951 0.944 0.965 0.932
12 Shields' criterion 35 0.088 0.673 56 120 0.305 0.988 0.972 0.956 0.945 0.932
120 0.305 0.616 56 18 0.315 0.978 0.961 0.965 0.952 0.887
61 1.710 0.687 56 31 0.320 0.972 0.955 0.965 0.948 0.890
13 Velikanov's parameter 35 0.088 0.640 9 41 0.330 0.980 0.955 0.934 0.936 0.914
120 0.305 0.695 9 240 0.375 0.977 0.959 0.954 0.946 0.942
61 1.710 0.604 9 27 0.440 0.961 0.956 0.964 0.951 0.934
14 Sediment mobility 35 0.088 0.526 82 44 0.450 0.970 0.968 0.965 0.953 0.930
parameter 120 0.305 0.542 82 53 0.470 0.977 0.955 0.935 0.975 0.919
61 1.710 0.606 82 380 0.506 0.987 0.951 0.972 0.964 0.930
15 Reynolds number 35 0.088 0.487 66 37 0.540 0.972 0.960 0.984 0.956 0.937
120 0.305 0.554 66 30 0.590 0.965 0.958 0.926 0.947 0.926
61 1.710 0.444 66 128 0.786 0.971 0.974 0.947 0.948 0.937
16 Transport stage 35 0.088 0.358 15 20 0.790 0.989 0.964 0.938 0.936 0.917
120 0.305 0.392 15 10 0.840 0.978 0.963 0.947 0.925 0.940
61 1.710 0.376 15 42 0.930 0.972 0.971 0.934 0.964 0.928
17 Total-load transport 35 0.088 0.250 7 5 0.940 0.968 0.966 0.925 0.887 0.878
parameter 120 0.305 0.251 7 42 1.000 0.976 0.964 0.947 0.899 0.884
61 1.710 0.255 7 5 1.300 0.966 0.962 0.935 0.889 0.882
61 1.710 0.984 0.964 0.925 0.895 0.835
Note: cThe importance of the parameters decreases as their ranking numbers increass
Mean 0.973 0.961 0.950 0.941 0.927
(i.e. rank = 1 is the most and rank = 300 is the least inuential parameter).
 S. Khorram, M. Jafari / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 74 (2010) 163170 169

Fig. 3. Relationships between the total-load sediment concentration (Cppm) and the suggested parameters for sand (d50 = 0.354 (mm)).

associated with most of the total-load sediment equations. From The six most inuential elds having more than 20% ranking value for
Table 4, the ranges of the selected statistical measures are 0.105 u2 Gs 1gq3 ds u2 vav Gs 1u2
the sand particles were vav s Sf ; v3av
; vav s ; s gds Sf
;
0.388 for Rd,16.4638.78 for V, 82.77100.95 for Csx, 0.2190.434 Sf s
5 ; and us : Their details are given in Fig. 2. It should be recalled
for RMSE,979.191275.87 for U, 0.2250.240 forMNE,and 2.60 gds

4.81 for AGD.These ranges guide the researchers in determining that, the well-known parameters that were believed among most of
the most appropriate total-load transport equation sets for sand the researchers, as detailed in Table 6 and used to generate many of
particles: Engelund and Hansen (1967), Molinas and Wu (2000). the widely used total-load transport equations as discussed earlier
2- The proposed author-suggested dimensional and dimensionless were having less importance (lower correlation coefcient values)
parameters in each equation were analyzed using the SA and ANN than those suggested parameters by the authors as mentioned above
techniques and are given in Table 1. The author-suggested from the ranking results of ANN approach.
parameters, were sorted from the most to least inuential for
4- A correlation coefcient values were determined for total-load
each equation not only to help researchers visualize them but also
between the dimensionless Intensity sediment transport rate and
to guide them in deciding which parameters required more
the best inuential parameters suggested by the author separately.
sensitive measurements to achieve more accurate predictions.
This calculation is shown in Table 7 The last row of this table shows
These most inuential parameters can be used to reappraise or
the mean values of the correlation coefcients of the inuential
modify the available equations to reduce the error.
parameters suggested by the author based on measured dataset
3- To more thoroughly analyze the most inuential parameters the
giving higher correlation coefcient values (closer to 1.0) than the
ve total-load transport equations were ranked where separate
widely used parameters that are given in Table 6.
histograms were generated and the number of times that a specic
5- Fig. 3 plots the dimensionless intensity of the bed-load rate and
parameter was repeated in the ve equations is presented as a
the ve most inuential proposed parameters for sand particles, and
percentage in the relevant gures. The most inuential proposed
all ve present a linear increase on a logarithmic scale, which indicates
parameters having more than 20% ranking value for sand particles
signicant correlations much better than the primary parameters
were as follows:
given in Fig. 4 and reinforcing the authors expectations.
2 2 2 3
vav Gs 1u Sf s u u G 1gq ds u
; ; ;  ; s 3 and  :
s gds Sf gd5s vav s Sf vav s vav s 5. Conclusion

The results of the analysis carried out by SA through ANN approach

Their ranking and repetition percentage details are shown in Fig. 1. indicate that, the whole study provides insight into the strengths,
170 S. Khorram, M. Jafari / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 74 (2010) 163170

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