An electromagnetic device for automatic detection of bedload motion and its field applications

A new sensor for the continuous and unmanned detection and recording of bedload motion is described. The sensor acts in the same fashion as a conventional metal detector but is elongate and installed permanently in the bed of an alluvial channel. Artificial clasts are labelled with short lengths of ferrite rod and are seeded upstream from the sensor, replacing bed particles. The entrainment of seeded clasts takes them over the sensor where they distort the magnetic field and produce a change in inductance that is detected and recorded. A field installation demonstrates the value of the sensor by revealing for the first time in coarse-grained alluvium the spasmodic nature of particle motion reminiscent of kinematic waves. It also illustrates the importance of pebble clusters in delaying particle entrainment.