Shi, H.Y.; You, Z.J.; Yin, B.S., and Bai, Y.C., 2018. Critical Depths Derived for Three Distinct Modes of Coastal Sediment Transport. In: Shim, J.-S.; Chun, I., and Lim, H.S. (eds.), Proceedings from the International Coastal Symposium (ICS) 2018 (Busan, Republic of Korea). Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 85, pp. 271–275. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

A unified criterion is developed for three distinct modes of coastal sediment transport: incipient movement of sediment (only bedload), initiation of bedripple formation (bedload and suspended load), and inception of bed ripple disappearance or sheet flow (mainly bed load) based on three unique laboratory datasets collected on a horizontal bed of sediment under regular waves. The onset velocity criterion on the three distinct sediment transport modesis derived to be of the same simple form, U₀ = 2πC (1 − T₀/T), where U₀ is the maximum on set wave orbital velocity close to the bed, T is the wave period, and C and T₀ are the coefficients dependent of sediment property only. The newly developed criterion is then extended to calculate critical depths for the distinct modes of sediment transport under coastal waves by replacing regular wave height H and period T with statistical wave height H_rms and period T_rms according to the recently developed “zero-crossing and energy balance” wave analysis method and linear wave theory. The critical depth calculated from this unified criterion is shown to be a function of sediment grain size and density, and wave height and period, but more sensitive to wave period. The critical depth estimated for the initiation of bed sediment ripple formation is found to be much larger than the depth of closure derived for beach-fill designs.