ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Swiss rivers have been heavily trained during 19th century. In particular, the Alpine Rhine was narrowed and straightened by two cutoffs. The result was only partially satisfactory. This was the challenge for research on bed load transport for Eugen Meyer-Peter and his research team at the Laboratory of Hydraulics of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, opened in 1930, amongst them Hans Albert Einstein, Henry Favre, Charles Jaeger and Robert Mueller. A number of flume tests resulted in the so-called first Meyer-Peter formula (1935). More tests, including those performed in the so-called Meyer-Peter flume (2 m wide, 50 m long) as well as a thorough dimensional analysis led to the well-known MeyerPeter/Mueller formula of 1948. Later, self-armouring process was in the focus of research led by Gessler and Guenter. Steep flume bed load transport tests allowed developing relations for bed load transport in mountain streams. Development of computer modelling allowed to assess the sediment regime of rivers; in particular that of the Alpine Rhine. Hunziker developed a procedure for fractionwise calculation of bed load transport. River restoration interests raised the question of sediment transport capacity in wide river reaches.
