The effects of sediment characteristics and wave height on shape-parameter for representing equilibrium beach profiles

The shape parameter helps determining the shape of equilibrium beach profile in terms of offshore distance and water depth. The shape parameter therefore, should represent the effect of all the environmental factors involved in beach profile formation, such as wave climate and sediment properties. However, all the previous studies carried out to define shape parameter only consider the effects of sediment characteristics in their definitions. The aim of this study is to add the effect of wave climate also in the definition of shape parameter. This is achieved by integrating wave energy dissipation rate per unit volume at the surf zone. The result yields equilibrium wave energy dissipation rate that leads to theoretical definition of equilibrium beach profiles involving the effects of both the grain size and the wave climate parameters. It is found that the sediment grain size and the incoming wave height affect the value of shape parameter; whereas, the effects of wave period can be neglected. By means of energy equation, it is also possible to observe in macro scale the strength of wave energy on beach profile for different grain sizes. The findings also bring about the possibility of defining shape parameter such that any two arbitrary beach profiles owning the same sediment grain sizes can have the opportunity to have different beach profile formations. Finally, by adding the effect of wave height in the definition of shape parameter the graphical representation of the parameter, previously given by Moore (1982) is improved herein.     

Verification of sediment transport rate parameter on cross-shore sediment transport analysis

The sediment transport parameter helps determining the amount of sediment transport in cross-shore direction. The sediment transport parameter therefore, should represent the effect of necessary environmental factors involved in cross-shore beach profile formation. However, all the previous studies carried out for defining shape parameter consider the parameter as a calibration value. The aim of this study is to add the effect of wave climate and grain size characteristics in the definition of transport rate parameter and thus witness their influence on the parameter. This is achieved by taking the difference in between “the equilibrium wave energy dissipation rate” and “the wave energy dissipation rate” to generate a definition for the bulk of sediment, dislocating within a given time interval until the beach tends reach an equilibrium conditions. The result yields that empirical definition of transport rate parameter primarily governs the time response of the beach profile. Smaller transport rate value gives a longer elapsed time before equilibrium is attained on the beach profile. It is shown that any significant change in sediment diameter or wave climate proportionally increases the value of the shape parameter. However, the effect of change in wave height or period on sediment transport parameter is not as credit to as mean sediment characteristics.     

Numerical study on wave-induced filtration flow across the beach face and its effects on swash zone sediment transport

A numerical model, coupling an analysis of beach groundwater flow with an analysis of swash wave motion over a uniform slope, is presented. Model calculations are performed to investigate the variations of swash-induced filtration flows across the beach face for different input parameters. Swash zone sediment transport under the influence of such filtration flow across the beach face is investigated through modification of effective weight of sediment particle and modification of swash boundary layer thickness. These effects are quantified based on a bed load transport model with a modified Shields parameter.     

套子湾沿岸加积型滩脊成因及其环境意义

讨论套子湾沿岸加岸加积型滩积的成因及其环境意义，提出滩脊→加积型滩脊→海岸沙丘的地貌发育模式，加积型滩脊的形成发展与海岸环境变化密切相关。     

Sediment trend models fail to reproduce small-scale sediment transport patterns on an intertidal beach

A rigorous test is presented of the application of sediment trend models to an intertidal beach environment characterized by bar morphology. Sediment samples were collected during low tide from a regular grid and their sediment fall velocity distributions, obtained using a settling tube, were analysed using moment analysis. The net sediment transport direction determined from beach surveys, hydrodynamic measurements, wave ripple observations and sediment transport modelling was compared with predictions by sediment trend models based on the spatial distribution of sediment parameters. It was found that the sediment transport pathways and patterns of sedimentation predicted using sediment trend models were at odds with field observations, and varied significantly depending on whether surface or sub‐surface sediment samples were used. The sediment trend models are thought to fail because, in energetic and morphologically variable beach environments, spatial patterns in sediment characteristics are mainly attributed to the presence of different hydrodynamic regions and associated morphology, rather than sediment pathways. The use of sediment trend models cannot replace the collection of morphological, hydrodynamic and sediment transport data in the field to define relationships between flows, forms and sedimentation patterns on a dynamic intertidal beach.     

四川盆地中部龙王庙组滩相储层特征及形成机制

依据岩心、常规薄片及铸体薄片、物性分析、压汞等资料的研究,四川盆地中部下寒武统龙王庙组滩相储层为发育良好的中低孔、低渗的孔隙型储层及裂缝—孔隙型储层。储集岩主要为砂屑白云岩、鲕粒白云岩与具残余颗粒结构的粉—细晶白云岩,储集空间主要包括粒间溶孔、粒内溶孔、晶间溶孔、铸模孔、残余粒间孔、裂缝及溶洞,孔喉配置关系好。储层形成机制研究表明,滩核和滩翼微相有利于储层发育,滩相储层在沉积早期具有典型的宏观非均质性,这为储层的形成与演化提供了物质基础。同生岩溶作用控制了早期储层的孔隙演化,表生岩溶作用决定了储层分布的基本特征,埋藏岩溶作用有利于先期孔渗层的优化改造。提出滩相储层的演化主要经历三个阶段,其中沉积—同生成岩阶段是早期优质储层形成的关键时期,表生岩溶改造阶段是滩相储层大规模增孔时期,埋藏成岩阶段为滩相储层孔隙调整和稳定时期。     

Characteristics of sediment in transport in the swash zone of a steep estuarine foreshore

Cross‐shore grading of sediment has been observed on the surface of estuarine beaches but the swash zone processes responsible for this grading have not been measured. This study was conducted to provide an explanation for the cross‐shore grading of sediment on a predominantly sandy estuarine foreshore. Data on wave and swash characteristics and sediment trapped in the uprush and backwash during 25 swash events were gathered from mid‐rising to mid‐falling tide on a small transgressive barrier in Delaware Bay, New Jersey, USA. Sediment is predominantly quartz and feldspar, medium to coarse sands with a gravel fraction of granules and pebbles. Wave energies increased with tidal rise. The percentage of gravel in transport in the uprush and backwash is similar (11% and 13%) during the rising tide when the swash zone is at mid‐foreshore, decreases in the uprush (9%) and increases in the backwash (18%) when the swash zone is on the upper foreshore. When the swash zone is at mid‐foreshore on the falling tide, the quantity of gravel in the backwash (30%) is greater than in the uprush (24%). The low proportion of gravel within the foreshore prior to trapping, and the increase in the percentage of gravel when the waves and swash are on the upper foreshore, suggests that the step is the primary source of gravel high on the foreshore. The size of the step increases as wave heights increase with tidal rise. The rate of delivery of gravel into the swash is enhanced by sediment entrained during wave breaking and interaction of the uprush with the previous backwash. The lag in the rate of step migration relative to breaker migration during the falling tide increases the likelihood of mining gravel from the step and subsequent transport in the uprush and backwash. These findings are important for low energy estuarine beaches sensitive to small changes in tidal range and wave energy that cause sedimentological change across the foreshore.     

Anatomy and sedimentary model of a hooked spit (Sylt,southern North Sea)

A sedimentary model for hooked spit depositional systems based on ground‐penetrating radar and sedimentological data is presented. The recurved main spit of Sylt Island (southern North Sea) is dominated by migrating sand dunes; the investigated hooked spit exhibits a system of foredune ridges, oriented perpendicular to the dunes of the recurved spit. The development of the hooked spit is related closely to the presence of an adjacent tidal inlet, where strong tidal currents and a steep bathymetry prevent a further northward progradation of the main spit and trigger a deflection from northerly‐directed to easterly‐directed net sediment transport. Ground‐penetrating radar data and shallow sediment cores reveal the sedimentary architecture of the hooked spit in high resolution and allow the proposition of a genetic stratigraphic model. It is shown that the growth of the hooked spit is controlled by the interplay of alongshore migrating foreshore beach drifts under fair‐weather conditions and strong erosional events, interpreted as the result of rare severe storms. These storms may excavate scarps in the backshore, which play an important role in the development of foredune ridges. Accelerator mass spectrometry ¹⁴C ages indicate an absolute age of at least 1300 years for the hooked spit, which possibly correlates with strengthened erosion of the main spit. In contrast to the main spit, where the sediment budget is negative nowadays, growth of the hooked spit beach accelerated significantly during the last decades. This effect can probably be attributed to enhanced beach‐nourishments updrift along the main spit and makes the investigated hooked spit a natural laboratory to study the influence of increasing sediment supply into a system developing under the conditions of sea‐level rise. The study shows that the same external forces lead to distinct progradational processes along one barrier‐spit system.     

Swash zone sediment fluxes: Field observations

This paper describes newly obtained, high-frequency observations of beach face morphological change over numerous tidal cycles on a macrotidal sandy beach made using a large array of ultrasonic altimeters. These measurements enable the net cross-shore sediment fluxes associated with many thousands of individual swash events to be quantified. It is revealed that regardless of the direction of net morphological change on a tidal time scale, measured net fluxes per event are essentially normally distributed, with nearly equal numbers of onshore and offshore-directed events. The majority of swash events cause net cross-shore sediment fluxes smaller than ± 50 kg m^− 1 and the mean sediment flux per swash event is only O(± 1 kg m^− 1) leading to limited overall morphological change. However, much larger events which deposit or remove hundreds of kilograms of sand per meter width of beach occur at irregular intervals throughout the course of a tide. It was found that swash–swash interactions tend to increase the transport potential of a swash event and the majority of the swash events that cause these larger values of sediment flux include one or more interactions. The majority of the larger sediment fluxes were therefore measured in the lower swash zone, close to the surf/swash boundary where swash–swash interactions are most common. Despite the existence of individual swash events that can cause fluxes of sediment that are comparable to those observed on a tidal time scale, frequent reversals in transport direction act to limit net transport such that the beach face volume remains in a state of dynamic equilibrium and does not rapidly erode or accrete.     

强潮环境下的海滩剖面沉积特征——以春季广西北海银滩为例

海滩地貌动力状态是海滩过程和陆海相互作用研究中的重要内容,但目前国内对北部湾强潮环境下的砂质海滩地貌与沉积的研究相对较少。对2010年3月采集的北海银滩剖面高程与沉积物变化的资料进行分析,探讨此类海滩响应外在驱动力作用的地貌动力状态特征,结果表明:1)北海银滩地貌结构简单,地貌状态属于消散型类型。2)银滩沉积物类型为砂,并以细砂、中砂为主,沉积物分选性较好;此外,沉积物中砂的百分含量和中值粒径自陆向海逐渐减小,而极细砂的百分含量则逐渐增加。3)北海银滩横向剖面沉积物可区分为后滨、滩面和内滨3个沉积单元。后滨沉积物在风的作用下以跃移质为主;滩面沉积物因波浪形成的冲流作用而具有双向运动的性质;内滨沉积物主要受控于波浪和潮流的联合驱动作用而以跃移质组分为主。