Cobequid Bay Sedimentology Project: A Progress Report

Abstract

During the past 40 years considerable effort has been expended in theoretical and experimental investigations of fluid flow in the area adjacent to a boundary. These investigations have formulated the general nature of the turbulent boundary layer under steady uniform conditions. The influence of boundary roughness on the flow, the transition from hydrodynamically smooth to rough boundary conditions, the forces necessary to initiate sediment motion, and bedform flow fields have been considered. Natural flows are seldom steady and uniform or both, and few investigators have attempted to test the applicability of experimental and theoretical steady uniform flow results to natural marine conditions. Conditions in the natural environment are more complex, and consequently less understood. Similarly, there has been little attempt to relate hydrodynamics to the sediments in order to explain the occurrence of textural and bedform distributions seen in the natural environment.