Comparative analysis of suspended sand concentration recorded with different techniques in a rippled bed regime

Abstract

Sediment entrainment processes due to the oscillatory flow above rippled and plane sea beds are fundamentally different. Whereas above plane beds the sheet flow or bed load regime dominates and the momentum transfer is primarily caused by turbulent diffusion, above a sea bed covered with long crested vortex ripples the well organised coherent vortex mechanisms induce sediment-laden lee vortices at the ripple crest, which will be detached from the bed ejected into the water column and finally shed when the flow reverses. To investigate the sediment entrainment processes above vortex ripples, a study was carried out in the Large Wave Flume (GWK) aiming firstly to find out the most appropriate measuring technique to determine the suspended sediment concentration both temporarily and spatially. and secondly to analyse the intra-wave sediment entrainment processes around a steep ripple.