Sediment Transport by Waves and Currents

Sediment transport (ST) in unsteady flows is a complex phenomenon that the existing formulae are often invalid to predict. Almost all existing ST formulae assume that sediment transport can be fully determined by parameters in streamwise direction without parameters in vertical direction. Different from this assumption, this paper highlights the importance of vertical motion and the vertical velocity is suggested to represent the vertical motion. A connection between unsteadiness and vertical velocity is established. New formulae in unsteady flows have been developed from inception of sediment motion, sediment discharge to suspension’s Rouse number. It is found that upward vertical velocity plays an important role for sediment transport, its temporal and spatial alternations are responsible for the phase lag phenomenon and bedform formation. Reasonable agreement between the measured and the proposed conceptual model was achieved.