Open AccessVERTICAL VARIABILITY OF COASTAL SEDIMENT TRANSPORT
Author(s) -
Ryszard B. Zeidler
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
proceedings of conference on coastal engineering/proceedings of ... conference on coastal engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2156-1028
pISSN - 0589-087X
DOI - 10.9753/icce.v21.126
Subject(s) - turbulence , eddy diffusion , sediment transport , randomness , sediment , geology , diffusion , field (mathematics) , dispersion (optics) , turbulent diffusion , thermal diffusivity , mechanics , geophysics , soil science , meteorology , geomorphology , mathematics , physics , statistics , optics , quantum mechanics , pure mathematics , thermodynamics
The semiempirical theory of turbulent diffusion may be used as a mathematical tool for description of suspended sediment mechanics. The Author's solutions, with their exponential vertical profiles of sediment concentration, are presented in various ranges of time, space, and external factors. The inherent concept of eddy diffusivity K is shown to be ambiguous and incoherent. Therefore it is purposeless to investigate thoroughly the vertical profiles and other details of K. Accordingly, the Author makes use of his own and alien laboratory and field findings to propose such estimates of K under regular waves and currents which are not continuous functions of the vertical coordinate but instead are locally averaged over depth layers. These estimates become more complex in real coastal zones due to the randomness of waves and currents, wave breaking, three-dimensionality and nonstationarity of nearbed turbulence, a variety of interactions, and other sources of sediment dispersion. Hence gross estimates of averaged K seem even more appropriate; some formulae are put forward. The vertical profiles of sediment concentration are presented herein along with examples of sediment transport rates measured in nearshore zones.