The suspended load of a flow of fluid, such as a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...

, is the portion of its

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sa ...

uplifted by the fluid's flow in the process of sediment transportation. It is kept suspended by the fluid's

turbulence In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is fluid motion characterized by chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity. It is in contrast to a laminar flow, which occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers, with no disruption between ...

. The suspended load generally consists of smaller particles, like

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel ...

, and fine

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class o ...

s''.''

Sediment transportation

The suspended load is one of the three layers of the fluvial sediment transportation system. The

bed load The term bed load or bedload describes particles in a flowing fluid (usually water) that are transported along the stream bed. Bed load is complementary to suspended load and wash load. Bed load moves by rolling, sliding, and/or saltating (h ...

consists of the larger sediment which is transported by saltation, rolling, and dragging on the

riverbed A stream bed or streambed is the bottom of a stream or river (bathymetry) or the physical confine of the normal water flow ( channel). The lateral confines or channel margins are known as the stream banks or river banks, during all but flood ...

. The suspended load is the middle layer that consists of the smaller sediment that's suspended. The

wash load Wash load is similar to a suspended load, but wash load sediment never interacts with the bed load. All of the sediment in the wash load stays suspended in the water throughout the channel (this concept has been debated). Wash load refers to a rive ...

is uppermost layer which consist of the smallest sediment that can be seen with the naked eye; however, the wash load gets easily mixed with suspended load during transportation due to the very similar process. The wash load never touches the bed even outside of a current.

Composition

The boundary between

and suspended load is not straightforward because whether a particle is in suspension or not depends on the flow velocity – it is easy to imagine a particle moving between bed load, part-suspension and full suspension in a fluid with variable flow. Suspended load generally consists of fine sand, silt and clay size particles although larger particles (coarser sands) may be carried in the lower water column in more intense flows.

Suspended load vs suspended sediment

''Suspended load'' and ''suspended sediment'' are very similar, but are not the same. Suspended Sediment contains

uplifted in Fluvial zones, but unlike suspended load no turbulence is required to keep it uplifted. Suspended loads required the Velocity to keep the sediment transporting above the bed. With low velocity the sediment will deposit.

Velocity

The suspended load is carried within the lower to middle part of the water column and moves at a large fraction of the mean flow velocity of the stream, with a

Rouse number The Rouse number (P or Z) is a non-dimensional number in fluid dynamics which is used to define a concentration profile of suspended sediment and which also determines how sediment will be transported in a flowing fluid. It is a ratio between the ...

between 0.8 and 1.2. The rates within the Rouse number reveal how at which the sediment will transport at the current velocity. It is the ratio of the fall velocity and uplift velocity on a grain.

Diagrams

Suspended load is often visualised using two diagrams. The

Hjulström curve The Hjulström curve, named after Filip Hjulström (1902–1982), is a graph used by hydrologists and geologists to determine whether a river will erode, transport, or deposit sediment. It was originally published in his doctoral thesis "Studies ...

uses velocity and sediment size to compare the rate of erosion, transportation, and deposition. While the diagram shows the rate, one flaw about the Hjulström Diagram is that it doesn't show the depth of the creek giving an estimated rate. The second diagram used is the Shields Diagram. The Shields Diagram uses the critical shield stress and Reynolds number to estimate transportation rate. Shields Diagram is considered a more precise chart to estimate suspended load.

Measuring suspended load

Shear stress

To find the stream power for sediment transportation,

shear stress Shear stress, often denoted by (Greek: tau), is the component of stress coplanar with a material cross section. It arises from the shear force, the component of force vector parallel to the material cross section. ''Normal stress'', on the ...

helps determine the force required to allow sediment transportation.

\tau= Pw.g.d.s

Critical shear stress

The point at which the sediment is transported within a stream

\tau = \tau . g. (p-p)d50

Suspended load transport rate

q=w.h.c . (a/h)^z-(a/h))/((1-a/h)Z . (1.2-Z))