Determination of Critical Shear Stresses for Erosion and Deposition Based onIn SituMeasurements of Currents and Waves over an Intertidal Mudflat

Abstract

ABSTRACT Shi, B.; Wang, Y.P.; Yang, Y.; Li, M.; Li, P.; Ni, W., and Gao, J., 2015. Determination of critical shear stresses for erosion and deposition based on in situ measurements of currents and waves over an intertidal mudflat. Accurate determination of the critical shear stress associated with the erosion and deposition of sediments is an important component of numerical models used to predict and quantify sediment behavior and transport across intertidal flats. In this study, water depth, wave parameters, near-bed turbulent velocity, suspended sediment concentration (SSC), and intratidal bed-level changes were measured to determine the erosion (τce) and deposition (τcd) thresholds of sediments on an intertidal mudflat at Jiangsu, China. Based on integrated field measurements of bed-level changes and hydrodynamics, the bed shear stresses of currents (τc), waves (τw), and combined current-wave action (τcw) were calculated, and the critical shear stress required for erosion (τce = 0.14 N/m2) and deposit...