Abstract
Estimation of erosive resistance of natural bank is important subject of river course design. Erosion process is found to be composed of three stages: erosion of lower non-cohesive layer of bank, collapse of overhanging upper cohesive layer in tension and the breakup and transport of the collapsed soil mass by the flow. And there are many attempts to understand erosion rate of bank soil by field experiments. But it is not enough to explain erosion mechanism and generalize erosion rate and so on. Because the field experiments were in the limited hydraulics and soil conditions. In this study, the direct relationship between soil characteristics, soil structure and erosion mechanism was examined by the erosion experiments using an open channel with 3 kinds of undisturbed natural soils. Finally prospect of bank erosion is discussed and summarized.
