Critical conditions of incipient motion of cohesive sediments

The critical condition of incipient motion of cohesive sediments was investigated in a laboratory study. One-hundred experimental runs were performed with sediment samples by varying the yield stress to determine the relationship between the critical condition of incipient motion and the rheological properties of the cohesive sediments. The results indicate that yield stress is a factor that has a major influence on the incipient motion of cohesive sediments. In addition, the critical Shields parameter is found to be exponentially proportional to the yield stress and inversely proportional to the median grain size. The effect of yield stress on the critical Shields parameter is significant for the cohesive sediments and becomes progressively weaker with increasing median grain size. Furthermore, an empirical formula for calculating the critical Shields parameter of cohesive sediments that includes a rheological term and a gravity term is proposed by introducing the yield stress. According to this formula, a modified Shields diagram is obtained in which the values of the critical Shields parameter for cohesive sediments vary within a band that contains countless curves (instead of on a single line) to reflect the influence of the yield stress. This modification of the traditional Shields curve is effective for fine sediments, but the effects tend to vanish for coarse sediments as the behavior of sediments changes from cohesive to noncohesive. Finally, potential further investigations are discussed.