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A unified criterion for initiation of sediment motion and inception of sheet

flow under water waves

Article in Sedimentology · July 2006

DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-3091.2006.00810.x

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Sedimentology (2006) 53, 1181–1190 doi: 10.1111/j.1365-3091.2006.00810.x

A unified criterion for initiation of sediment motion and

inception of sheet flow under water waves
ZAI-JIN YOU* ,  and BAOSHU YIN 
*Coastal Unit, NSW Department of Natural Resources, PO Box 2185, Dangar, NSW 2309, Australia
(E-mail: bob.you@dipnr.nsw.gov.au)
Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 7 Nanhai Rd, Qingdao 266071, China

ABSTRACT

A unified criterion is developed for initiation of non-cohesive sediment

motion and inception of sheet flow under water waves over a horizontal bed of
sediment based on presently available experimental data. The unified
threshold criterion is of the single form, Uo ¼ 2pC[1 + 5(TR/T)2])1/4, where
Uo is the onset velocity of sediment motion or sheet flow, T is wave period, and
C and TR are the coefficients. It is found that for a given sediment, Uo initially
increases sharply with wave period, then gradually approaches the maximum
onset velocity Uo ¼ 2pC and becomes independent of T when T is larger. The
unified criterion can also be extended to define sediment initial motion and
sheet flow under irregular waves provided the significant wave orbital velocity
and period of irregular waves are introduced in this unified criterion.
Keywords Initial motion, irregular wave, onset velocity, sheet flow, threshold
criterion.

INTRODUCTION this approach (e.g. Komar & Miller, 1973; You,

Numerous threshold criteria have been developed
for initiation of sediment movement under regu-
lar waves (eg Bagnold, 1946; Manohar, 1955;
Komar & Miller, 1973; Madsen & Grant, 1975;
You, 1998, 2000). The existing criteria have been
developed with three different approaches. The
first one is to determine individual forces acting
on a single sediment particle and then solve the
equation of motion for this particle (e.g. Eagleson
et al., 1958). Because there is a great deal of
uncertainty in determining the drag, lift and
inertial coefficients, this approach has not been
applied widely. The second approach is to apply
the Shields curve derived in steady flow to study
the initiation of sediment motion under waves
(e.g. Madsen & Grant, 1975). Even though the
second approach has some weaknesses (Sleath,
1978), it has been widely used by many research-
ers and coastal engineers. In fact, the first
approach is equivalent to the second as discussed
recently by You (2005). The last approach is to
derive an empirical or semi-empirical relation-
ship based on available experimental data. Most
of the existing criteria have been derived with
 2006 The Authors. Journal compilation  2006 International Association of Sedimentologists
1998). The weakness of the last approach is that
the empirical relationships derived from different
data sets may not be compatible, but this weak-
ness can be overcome if many data sets are used
(You, 2000).
The inception of sheet flow under water waves
occurs when bed shear stress is increasing and
sand ripples or other irregularities on the bed
surface begin to disappear completely and the bed
becomes totally flat. This type of flow is charac-
terized by an essentially plane bed, and a thin
moving layer of bed-load sediment at high con-
centration. Sheet flow is often found in flooding
rivers, tidal estuaries during local storms and the
surf zone under ocean waves (You, 1999).
Because sheet flow has a great effect on sediment
transport, it is of significance to define the flow
region in which this type of flow occurs. Unfor-
tunately, only a few studies on the inception of
sheet flow under waves have been undertaken
(e.g. Komar & Miller, 1975; Wilson, 1989; You,
1999). The approaches used by former investiga-
tors may be classified into two: the Shields curve
approach (Wilson, 1989) and the empirical or
semi-empirical method (You, 1999).
1181
1182 Z.-J. You and B. Yin
There is no universal or unified form proposed
to define sediment initial motion and sheet flow
under waves. For example, a general criterion
form, W ¼ f(A/d), was proposed by Komar &
Miller (1973) to define sediment initial motion
under waves, but a different criterion form,
W ¼ F[f(A/d) · g(d,s)], was suggested for the
inception of sheet flow by Komar & Miller
(1974; 1975), where W is the wave mobility
number, A the semi-excursion of wave orbit, d
the sediment grain size and s the specific density.
Although the initiation of sediment motion and
inception of sheet flow are two different physical
processes, they may be defined in a universal or
unified form. In this study, a unified threshold
criterion is developed for initiation of sediment
motion and inception of sheet flow under regular
waves and then extended to apply to irregular
waves.
A UNIFIED CRITERION
Formulation
The initiation of sediment movement and incep-
tion of sheet flow over a horizontal bed under
regular waves may be uniquely defined by three
groups of variables: sediment properties (d, qs),
wave parameters (A, T), and water characteristics
(qw,m). For coastal engineering applications, how-
ever, water density qw and kinematic viscosity m
may be considered as constants. Therefore, the six
independent parameters of the three groups
reduce to four: sediment diameter d, sediment
density qs, wave orbital semi-excursion A and
wave period T. A unified criterion for initiation of
sediment motion and inception of sheet flow may
be generally expressed as
f ðd; qs ; A; TÞ ¼ 0:
When sediment grain size and density (d, qs)
are given, the unified criterion, Eq. (1), can be
further simplified as
A ¼ f ðTÞ
Based on a wide range of experimental data on
sediment initial motion under regular waves, the
explicit expression of Eq. (2) was determined by
You (2000) as
A ¼ CðT  To Þ;
where C and To are the coefficients dependent
upon sediment grain size and density only and
 2006 The Authors. Journal compilation  2006 International Association of Sedimentologists, Sedimentology, 53, 1181–1190
measured in metre per second and seconds,
respectively. Equation 3 is a simple criterion for
the initiation of sediment motion under regular
waves.
Now, assume that Eq. (3) may be also used to
define the inception of sheet flow under regular
waves. If this assumption is valid, a plot of the
data points (T, A) collected for a given sediment
at the inception of sheet flow should also be
linear. Manohar’s (1955) laboratory data on
inception of sheet flow are used to verify this
assumption. Manohar conducted a comprehen-
sive study on sediment initial motion, sediment
general motion, initiation of sediment ripples,
development of ripples and disappearance of
ripples in an oscillatory flow simulated by an
oscillating bed in a glass-walled flume. The
oscillating bed, which was made of a horizontal
stainless steel platform (30 cm wide and 200 cm
long) and held a thick layer of sediment, was
made to oscillate longitudinally on rollers fixed
to the flume bottom. Manohar (1955) defined the
initiation of sediment motion when a few sedi-
ment grains started to move on the bed. The
inception of sheet flow is defined in this study as
occurring when sediment ripples completely
disappear from the bed surface. Thus, Manohar’s
data on disappearance of sediment ripples are
used to verify Eq. (3). The plots of Manohar’s
data points (T, A) collected for individual sedi-
ment grains at the inception of sheet flow are
shown in Fig. 1. Indeed, it can be seen that wave
orbital semi-excursion A is linearly proportional
to wave period T for given sediment (d, qs). The
linear regression lines are also drawn for differ-
ent sediments (Fig. 1). The correlation coefficient
R2 is shown always higher than 0Æ9. Therefore,
Eq. (3) is a unified threshold criterion applicable
to both initial sediment motion and sheet flow
under regular water waves.
ð1Þ
Coefficient determination
The coefficients C and To in Eq. (3) are only
dependent upon sediment grain size and density
ð2Þ (d, qs) as shown in Fig. 1. For a given sediment, C
and CTo physically represent the slope and
intercept of the linear regression lines in Fig. 1
and thus they can be directly determined from the
plots of (T, A). For different sediments, however,
C and To generally vary with d and qs as shown in
Fig. 1. Based on five different sets of experimental
ð3Þ data on initiation of sediment motion under
waves, the values of C and To were calculated
by You (2000) as
 Initial sediment motion and sheet flow 1183

Fig. 1. The unified threshold criterion, A ¼ C(T ) To), is compared with Manohar’s (1955) data (A, T) on inception
of sheet flow under waves, where ‘d’ and ‘s’ are sediment grain size and specific density.

Cd mTo Fortunately, it will be shown later that the

¼ 253s092
 ; 2
¼ 53s13
 and
m d
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
d ðs  1Þgd
s ¼ ; ð4Þ
4m
where s* is called the scaled dimensionless
immersed sediment weight (You, 1998). The
values of C and To calculated from Eq. (4) are
compared with those from the experimental
data of Bagnold (1946), Manohar (1955), Hori-
kawa & Watanabe (1967), Rance & Warren
(1968) and Sleath (1978) in Fig. 2. It can be
seen that the dimensionless parameters Cd/m
and mTo/d2 are only the function of s* and well
estimated by Eq. (4). The calculated values of
Cd/m are shown to generally agree better with
the experimental data than those of mTo/d2.
 2006 The Authors. Journal compilation  2006 International Association of Sedimentologists, Sedimentology, 53, 1181–1190
simple criterion Eq. (3) is insensitive to To
when T > 5 s. Similarly, Manohar’s (1955)
experimental data on inception of sheet flow
are also plotted in Fig. 3. Again, the dimen-
sionless parameters dC/m and mTo/d2 are shown
to be only a function of s*, and may be
estimated as
Cd mTo
¼ 135s078
 and ¼ 30s13
 ; ð5Þ
m d2
where C is much larger (e.g. five times) than that
in Eq. (4), but To is smaller (e.g. 0Æ6 times) than
that in Eq. (4). Finally, Eq. (3), together with Eqs
(4) and (5), may be used as the unified threshold
criterion for initiation of sediment motion and
inception of sheet flow under waves.
1184 Z.-J. You and B. Yin

Fig. 2. Variations of C and To with s* determined from the experimental data on initial sediment motion under
waves (You, 2000).

Fig. 3. Variations of C and To with s* determined from Manohar (1955) data on inception of sheet flow.

range from 5 to 15 s and are much larger

Unified criterion
The unified criterion, Eq. (3), is only valid for
T > To. The value of To is less sensitive to
sediment grain size than to sediment density
according to Eqs (4) and (5). The To value in
Eq. (3) is about 0Æ6 s for initial motion of sand
and 0Æ4 s for sheet flow over a sandy bed. In
general, Eq. (3) should always be applicable in
the coastal zone where the wave periods
 2006 The Authors. Journal compilation  2006 International Association of Sedimentologists, Sedimentology, 53, 1181–1190
than To. However, Eq. (3) may not be valid for
short waves and light sediment. For example,
wave periods generated in the laboratory wave
flume normally range from 1 to 3 s, while To
calculated from Eq. (4) is about 1Æ7 s for light
sediment of coal particles with s ¼ 1Æ3 and
d ¼ 0Æ1–1 mm. Consequently, the condition of
T > To required by Eq. (3) cannot always be
met. You (2000) proposed a different criterion

for initiation of sediment motion under short
waves of T 6 TR
 
2TR C T 3=2
A¼ for T  TR
3 TR
where TR was uniquely determined as TR ¼ 3To.
(For details of the derivation of Eq. (6), refer to
You, 2000.)
Because few data on inception of sheet flow
were collected with short wave periods (e.g.
T < 1Æ0), Eq. (6) may be also assumed to be valid
for the inception of sheet flow under waves of
T < 3To. Finally, Eqs (3) and (6) may be used as
the complete unified criterion for initial motion of
sediment and inception of sheet flow under
regular waves. However, because the onset velo-
city Uo of sediment motion or sheet flow can be
directly measured in the laboratory and field, it
would be convenient to rewrite Eqs (3) and (6) as
8   motion. It was concluded that the unified criter-
> T
< 2pC 1  R for T > TR
Uo ¼ 3T ð7Þ
> pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
: 4pC T=T for T  T
R R
3 (1975) and Hallermeier (1980). Figure 5 also
where Uo ¼ 2pA/T. Equation (7) is the unified
criterion for initiation of sediment motion and
inception of sheet flow under waves derived in
this study, and can be further simplified into a
single equation as
Uo ¼ 2pC½1 þ 5ðTR =TÞ2 1=4 ;
by applying the logarithmic matching method of
Guo (2002). In general, a nonlinear equation with
two asymptotic solutions can be approximated
with this logarithmic matching method. As two
asymptotic solutions,
n (1974). Equation (8) is also found to be easier to
0 at T ¼ 0
Uo ¼
2pC at T ! 1
can be found from Eq. (7), a single nonlinear
equation with the two asymptotic solutions,
Eq. (8), can then be constructed with this match-
ing method. The relative error in calculating Uo
via Eq. (8) ranges from )4Æ8% to 2Æ4% in compar-
ison with Eq. (7), and thus Eq. (8) is a good
approximation to Eq. (7). The introduction of
Eq. (8) will significantly simplify the procedure
in calculating the onset velocity Uo of sediment
motion or sheet flow. The variation of Uo with T
for different sand diameters is calculated from
Eq. (8) and shown in Fig. 4. It can be seen that
when sediment properties (d, qs) are given, Uo
initially increases sharply with wave period, then
 2006 The Authors. Journal compilation  2006 International Association of Sedimentologists, Sedimentology, 53, 1181–1190
Initial sediment motion and sheet flow 1185
gradually approaches the maximum onset velo-
city Uo ¼ 2pC and becomes independent of T
when T is large. This variation of Uo with T
depicted in Fig. 4 is supported by a wide range of
ð6Þ experimental data on sediment initial motion
presented in fig. 9 of You (2000). The incipient
velocity of sheet flow is generally much larger
(e.g. about five times) than the onset velocity of
sediment motion in Fig. 4.
COMPARISONS
Numerous researchers have collected experimen-
tal data on initiation of sediment motion under
waves (e.g. Bagnold, 1946; Manohar, 1955; Eagle-
son et al., 1958; Rance & Warren, 1968). The
unified criterion, Eq. (7) together with Eq. (4),
was compared by You (2000) with nine different
sets of experimental data on sediment initial
ion, Eq. (7), generally agrees better with the
experimental data than the three commonly used
criteria of Komar & Miller (1974), Madsen & Grant
shows the comparison of the unified criterion,
Eq. (8), with 10 different sets of experimental data
on sediment initial motion. The five sets of
experimental data from Vincent (1957), Carstens
et al. (1969), Larsen et al. (1981), Young & Sleath
(1988) and Paphitis et al. (2001) are not used to
ð8Þ derive the coefficients C and To in Eq. (8) and can
be used to independently verify if Eq. (8) can
perform well. It can be seen from Fig. 5 that the
single-criterion Eq. (8) agrees quite well with the
experimental data. The most recent data set of
Paphitis et al. (2001) is found to agree better with
Eq. (8) than the criterion of Komar & Miller
apply than Eq. (7).
Few data on inception of sheet flow under waves
have been collected, and the data set of Manohar
(1955) is the only comprehensive data set available
in this study. The threshold criteria of Komar &
Miller (1975), Wilson (1989) and Eq. (8) are
compared with Manohar’s data. The incipient
velocity Uo of sheet flow is calculated from the
criterion of Komar & Miller (1975) as
 
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 554 3=7 1=7
Uo ¼ ðs  1Þgd s with
fw
fw ¼ exp½5213ðd=AÞ0194  5977; ð9Þ
and from the criterion of Wilson (1989) as
1186 Z.-J. You and B. Yin

A 60

d = 3·0 mm
Onset velocity (cm sec–1)

40 d = 1·5 mm

d = 0·75 mm

d = 0·3 mm
20
d = 0·1 mm

0
0 2 4 6 8

B 125
Incipient velocity (cm sec–1)

d = 0·65 mm

d = 0·45 mm
100
d = 0·30 mm
d = 0·20 mm

d = 0·12 mm
75

Fig. 4. The variation of Uo with T is

calculated from Eq. (8) using differ-
ent sand diameters ‘d’ when initi-
50 ation of sediment motion occurs (A)
0 2 4 6 8
and when inception of sheet flow
Wave period (sec) begins under regular waves (B).

 
50 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 2H 05
Uo ¼ ðs  1Þgd with
fw
 04
A
Calculated onset velocity (cm sec–1)

40 fw ¼ 0114 : ð10Þ
ðs  1ÞgT 2

where Q ¼ 0Æ8 is the Shields parameter defined as

30
H ¼ 05fw Uo2 . The wave friction factors applied
Bagnold (1946) in Eqs (9) and (10) are shown to be quite different.
Manohar (1955) It can be seen from Fig. 6A that the unified
20 Vincent (1957)
Cartsen (1965)
criterion, Eq. (8) together with Eq. (5), agrees
Horikawa (1967) slightly better with the experimental data than
Rance (1968)
Sleath (1978)
the criterion of Komar & Miller (1975), but
10
Larsen (1981) appears better than that of Wilson (1989). It
Young (1988)
Paphitis (2001)
should be noted that the criteria of Eqs (8) and
(9) are all derived from the same data set of
0 Manohar (1955) and thus they should perform
0 10 20 30 40 50
Measured onset velocity (cm sec–1) better than Wilson’s (1989) criterion. More
Fig. 5. Comparison of the unified criterion, Eq. (8) to- experimental data are definitely required to verify
gether with Eq. (4), with 10 different sets of experi- if Eq. (8) is more accurate than Wilson’s criterion.
mental data on initiation of sediment motion under The variation of the mobility number W and the
waves. Shields parameter Q with s* at the inception of
 2006 The Authors. Journal compilation  2006 International Association of Sedimentologists, Sedimentology, 53, 1181–1190
 Initial sediment motion and sheet flow 1187

A 200 B 270 0·9

Eq.(8)
Komar (1975)
Predicted Uo (cm sec–1) Wilson (1989)

150 180 0·6

Shields parameter
Mobility number
100 90 0·3

Mobility number
Shields parameter
50 0 0
50 100 150 0 50 100
Measured Uo (cm sec–1) d ( s −1) gd /(4ν )

Fig. 6. (A) Comparison of the threshold criteria of Komar & Miller (1975), Wilson (1989), and Eq. (8) with Manohar’s
(1955) data on inception of sheet flow.

sheet flow is also shown in Fig. 6B. The wave simply expressed as u ~ ðtÞ ¼ Uo sinðxtÞ, where Uo
mobility number at the inception of sheet flow, is the onset velocity and x the angular frequency.
W ¼ Uo2 =½ðs  1Þgd, is shown to vary signifi- The root-mean-square wave orbital velocity urms
cantly from 34 to 226 rather than being a constant, of n regular waves can then be calculated as
e.g. W ¼ 240 suggested by Dingler & Inman (1976)
 Z nT 05
or W ¼ 156 by Nielsen (1981). The threshold 1 2 1
criterion of W ¼ 156 or W ¼ 240 is shown not to urms ¼ ~ dt
u ¼ pffiffiffi Uo : ð11Þ
nT 0 2
agree well with the data of Manohar (1955) in
Fig. 6B. Li & Amos (1999) also found that W varies On the other hand, the root-mean-square orbital
significantly with sand diameter, e.g. velocity Urms of n irregular waves at the initiation
W ¼ 12d)0Æ71 where d must be in centimetres. of sediment motion or sheet flow can be directly
This is because the incipient velocity Uo is not measured near the seabed. If the n irregular waves
constant for the given sediment, and varies are considered equivalent to the n regular waves,
significantly with T as shown in Eq. (9). It is also the root-mean-square velocity urms of the n regular
shown in Fig. 6B that the Shields parameter, waves called the kinematic wave energy should be
Q ¼ 0Æ5fwW, varies from 0Æ3 to 1Æ0 with s* rather equal to Urms of the n irregular waves, i.e. urms ¼
than a constant, e.g. Q  1 proposed by Van Rijn Urms. Substituting urms ¼ U ffiffiffi into Eq. (11), the
prms
(1989), where fw is calculated from Eq. (9). Li & simple relationship, Uo ¼ 2Urms ¼ U1=3 (You &
Amos (1999) also showed that Q varies signifi- Hanslow, 2001) is obtained, where U1/3 is called
cantly with sand diameter, e.g. Q ¼ 0Æ172d)0Æ38. the significant onset orbital velocity. This simple
With the wave friction factor calculated from relationship, Uo ¼ U1/3, is also supported by
Eq. (9) rather than Eq. (10), the criterion of Green’s (1999) field data on initiation of sediment
Q ¼ 0Æ56 is found to give a better fit to Manohar’s motion under ocean waves.
data, but remains less accurate than the unified Now, the unified threshold criterion Eq. (8)
threshold criterion, Eq. (8). may be extended to define the initiation of
sediment motion and inception of sheet flow in
estuarine and coastal waters
APPLICATION
U1=3 ¼ 2pC½1 þ 5ðTR =T1=3 Þ2 1=4 : ð12Þ
The unified criterion Eq. (8), which is derived
under regular waves, may be extended to define That is, when the onset velocity U1/3 calculated
sediment initial motion and sheet flow under from Eq. (12) is smaller than one measured in
irregular waves. When the initiation of sediment the field, the initial motion of sediment or
motion or sheet flow occurs under regular waves, inception of sheet flow will occur. If the signi-
0
instantaneous wave orbital velocities can be ficant orbital velocity U1=3 is not directly meas-
 2006 The Authors. Journal compilation  2006 International Association of Sedimentologists, Sedimentology, 53, 1181–1190
1188 Z.-J. You and B. Yin
ured in the field, it may be computed from the
measured significant wave height H1/3 by using
linear wave theory
0 pH1=3
U1=3 ¼ ;
T1=3 sinhðkhÞ
where k is the wave number and h the local mean
0
water depth. Note that U1=3 is the significant
orbital velocity measured in the field and may not
necessarily be equal to the onset velocity U1/3
calculated from Eq. (12). The wave number k can
be numerically iterated from the dispersion equa-
tion, ko ¼ k tanh(kh), or explicitly calculated
from the formula of Hunt (1979), where ko is the
wave number in deep water. For most coastal
engineering applications, however, a simple for-
mula of You (2003) may be used to explicitly
calculate the value of kh in shallow and inter-
mediate waters
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 1 4 16
05
kh ¼ ko h 1 þ ðko hÞ þ ðko hÞ2 þ ðko hÞ3
3 45 945
which has a relative error <0Æ5% and is valid for
koh £ 2 in comparison with the exact solution to
the dispersion equation.
Few data on initiation of sediment motion have
been collected in the field. Larsen et al. (1981)
collected field data on the initiation of sediment
motion at three continental shelf sites using an
instrumented tripod sitting on the seabed. The
initiation of sediment movement was defined
when the measured water turbidity suddenly
increased above previously sustained background
levels. The wave periods ranged from 10 to 16 s
and sediment grain size from 0Æ035 to 0Æ17 mm.
0
The onset velocities U1=10 of sediment motion
were measured at 1Æ0 m above the seabed, where
0
U1=10 is the average of the highest 10% of the
measured wave orbital velocities and
0 0
U1=3 ¼ 079U1=10 (You & Hanslow, 2001). The
field data of Larsen et al. (1981) are compared
with Eq. (12) and the threshold criteria of Komar
& Miller (1974) and Madsen & Grant (1975) and
shown in Fig. 7. It can be seen that the unified
threshold criterion, Eq. (12), agrees better with
the field data than the other two criteria. Note that
Eq. (12) ignores the effect of currents on the onset
orbital velocity. The onset orbital velocity of
sediment motion or sheet flow under pure waves
should always be larger than that under waves
and currents (You, 1997). In general, sediment is
often initiated by individual waves in combined
 2006 The Authors. Journal compilation  2006 International Association of Sedimentologists, Sedimentology, 53, 1181–1190
25
Onset velocity U1/3 (cm sec–1)
20
Eq.(8)
Measured
Madsen & Grant
ð13Þ 15
Komar & Miller
10
5
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Tests
Fig. 7. The unified threshold criterion is compared
with the field data of Larsen et al. (1981) and the
threshold criteria of Komar & Miller (1974) and Madsen
& Grant (1975).
wave-current flow unless the combined flow is
dominated by currents.
The unified criterion Eq. (8) or Eq. (12) can be
also applied to define sediment general motion
; and sediment ripple formation under waves (You,
2005), but with different values of C and TR in
ð14Þ
Eq. (8). The onset velocity of sediment general
motion is greater than that of sediment initial
motion, but less than that of sediment ripple.
Based on Manahor’s data on initiation of sedi-
ment ripple, for example, the coefficients C and
To can be estimated as
Cd mTo
¼ 55s078
 and ¼ 169s164
 : ð15Þ
m d2
In the coastal zone, it is often required to
determine at what water depth the initiation of
sediment motion or sheet flow will occur. This
water depth is called the critical water depth.
The critical water depths for initial sediment
motion, sediment ripple formation and sheet
flow are calculated by equalling Eqs (12) and
(13), and are compared in Fig. 8. It can be seen
that the critical water depths for initial sediment
motion are larger than those for sediment ripple
formation and sheet flow. Figure 8 also shows
that the critical water depth for inception of
sheet flow is significantly affected by wave
period, but much less by sediment grain size.
The critical water depth for the inception of
sheet flow would be smaller than the depth of
closure, at which the seabed level changes are
insignificant (e.g. less than 2–5 cm). The depth
of closure is an essential parameter for estima-
ting the volume of sand needed to nourish
eroded sandy beaches.
 Initial sediment motion and sheet flow 1189
90 Carstens, M.R., Neilson, R.M. and Altinbilek, H.D. (1969) Bed
1 forms generated in the laboratory under an oscillatory flow:
T analytical and experimental study. Technical Memo, No.28.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Coastal Engineering
Critical water depth (m)

d 2
T Research Center, Washington, D.C.
60
d Dingler, J.R. and Inman, D.L. (1976) Wave formed ripples in
3
4
T lulu, Hawaii, 2109–2126.
d Eagleson, P.S., Dean, R.G. and Peralta, L.A. (1958) The
30
d mechanics of the motion of discrete spherical bottom sedi-
T 5
d
0 Green, M. (1999) Test of sediment initial motion theories
0 3 6 9
Wave height H1/3 (m)
Fig. 8. The critical water depths calculated from the
unified criterion Eq. (8) for: (1) initial motion of sedi-
ment, (2) initiation of sand ripples and (3–5) inception
of sheet flow under waves.
CONCLUSION
The unified single threshold criterion, Eq. (8)
together with Eqs 4 and 5, has been developed
for initiation of sediment motion and inception of
sheet flow under regular waves. It is found that the
onset velocity of sediment motion or sheet flow
initially increases sharply with wave period, and
then gradually approaches to the maximum onset
velocity Uo ¼ 2pC and becomes independent of T
when T is quite large. The unified single criterion
agrees well with a wide range of experimental
data on sediment initial motion and the presently
available data on sheet flow. The extended thresh-
old criterion, Eq. (12), is also derived to define the
initiation of sediment motion and inception of
sheet flow under irregular waves. The critical
water depths for initial sediment motion and
sheet flow are affected significantly by wave
period, but much less so by sediment grain size.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study has been supported by the Distin-
guished Overseas Young Researcher Grant (No.
40428001) of the National Natural Science Foun-
dation of China. The technical comments made
by Professor Paul Carling and two anonymous
reviewers have improved the original manuscript.
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Manuscript received 10 March 2006; revision accepted
18 May 2006