SUSPENDED SEDIMENT MIXING IN THE SURF ZONE

Abstract

The vertical distribution of suspended sediment in the surf zone is analysed by using field measurements. The analysis focuses in the description of the shape of the profile, i.e. mixing coefficient, and to do this, several approaches have been followed: pure diffusion, pure convection and combined diffusion-convection. The obtained results show a strong dependence of the sediment diffusion coefficient with the sediment grain size whereas the convective length scale presented a smaller grain-size influence.