Effect of turbulent bursting on sediment entrainment

Several nearshore studies show that turbulence does play a role in transporting sediments along bottom boundary layers. As the movement of sediment has significant implications for the marine environment, it is important to understand the process of sediment entrainment associated with turbulence in nearshore sediment transport processes. This research intends to develop a better understanding of the role of intermittent turbulence in transporting sediments along the bottom boundary layer in the nearshore region of Point Peron beach of Western Australia. A set of high spatial and temporal resolution data have been collected employing Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter (ADV) and Optical Backscatter Sensor (OBS) instruments at 8Hz sampling rate along with an underwater video camera in order to visualise the resuspension events. Data was recorded at ∼0.9 m water depth. The collected field data has been post processed using quadrant analysis and the wavelet transform method to understand the role of turbulent coherent structure on sediment motion. This analysis provides a more refined parameterisation through comparing sediment transport processes to understand the importance of turbulence bursting events and their percentage contribution in sediment resuspension and transportation. Furthermore, the contributions made by different turbulent events in momentum and sediment fluxes have also been investigated.