To investigate the effect of the initial sediment concentration ($C_o$) and bed shear stress (${\tau}_b$) on the settling properties of silty mud, deposition experiments were conducted in a recirculating flume using silty mud sediment taken from the Y...
To investigate the effect of the initial sediment concentration ($C_o$) and bed shear stress (${\tau}_b$) on the settling properties of silty mud, deposition experiments were conducted in a recirculating flume using silty mud sediment taken from the Youngkwang coast which is located in the eastern Yellow Sea. The relative concentration, $C/C_o$ (C=depth averaged concentration), and the relative equilibrium concentration, $C_{eq}/C_o$ ($C_{eq}$=depth averaged concentration in the equilibrium state), have been found to depend much more strongly on the bed shear stress than initial concentration, and to increase with increasing bed shear stress. The minimum value. ${\tau}_{bmin}$, and maximum value. ${\tau}_{bmax}$, of critical bed shear stress for deposition of the Youngkwang sediment were deduced to be $0.017N/m^2$ and $1.25N/m^2$, respectively, and these values depend strongly on the properties of sediment (grain size and mineralogy). Formulas for the relative concentration and apparent median settling velocity in the range of ${\tau}_b{\geq}{\tau}_{bmin}$ were deduced. The apparent median settling velocity was found to depend much more strongly on the bed shear stress than the initial concentration and to decrease exponentially with increasing bed shear stress.