Revisiting Longshore Sediment Transport Formulas
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VIEW THE REPLYPublication: Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering
Volume 146, Issue 4
Abstract
Longshore sediment transport (LST) prediction is still a challenging task in coastal engineering, due to complexity in affecting physical processes. There have been studies to develop tools to predict the LST rate, but there is still room to revisit methods and data previously collected to achieve a more robust formula. In this study, an extensive sediment data set including sand, gravel, and shingle was collected and used to evaluate the performance of existing LST volumetric rate prediction formulas and to derive two new formulas (based on dimensional and nondimensional approaches). Both formulas are based on commonly available parameters, that is, significant wave height at breaker point (Hsb), peak wave period (TP), wave angle at breaker point (αb), and sediment size (D50). The benefits of the formulas are: (1) minimum required input parameters; (2) easy to comprehend, physically justifiable functional forms, free from making any assumptions or using any other equation; and (3) a wide range of applicability. Eventually, the formula derived based on nondimensional parameters is suggested, owing to its homogeneity and accuracy using an independent field data set.
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Data Availability Statement
All data used during this study are available from the literature listed and cited in Table 1.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Dr. Mil-Homens, who provided us with his data set. We are also thankful to Prof. L. van Rijn for his fruitful discussions and constructive comments. The first author also thanks Mr. Mark Filmer for his assistance in enhancing the manuscript.
Notation
The following symbols are used in this paper:
- Ck
- characteristic wave height modification factor;
- D50
- particle size diameter;
- Dn50
- nominal particle size diameter;
- F
- wave flux;
- g
- gravitational acceleration;
- Hk,b
- characteristic wave height at beaker point;
- Hsb
- significant wave height at beaker point;
- Kswell
- regular swell waves factor;
- k
- wave number;
- kCERC, kKPH,D, kKPH,ND, kMH,CERC, kMH,KPH, kMH,B
- various coefficients for various LST formulas;
- L0
- offshore wavelength;
- ld
- distance travelled by breakwater blocks;
- mb
- beach slope from shoreline to breaker point;
- Nod
- number of (armor) particles removed, under the action of 1,000 waves, from a Dn50 wide strip;
- modified (armor) stability number;
- p
- sediment particle porosity;
- SN
- number of (armor) units passing a given control section in one wave;
- Tm
- mean wave period;
- Tp
- peak wave period;
- representative longshore current velocity averaged across the surf zone width;
- ws
- particle fall velocity;
- αb
- wave angle at breaker point;
- Δ
- relative sediment density;
- γb
- wave breaking factor;
- ρ
- seawater/ambient water density;
- ρs
- sediment particle density; and
- θk,b
- characteristic wave obliquity at breaking.
References
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Published In
Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering
Volume 146 • Issue 4 • July 2020
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 31, 2019
Accepted: Aug 27, 2019
Published online: Mar 25, 2020
Discussion open until: Mar 25, 2020
Published in print: Jul 1, 2020
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