The role of "pump action" in coastal and estuarine sediment resuspension

Most of the sediment into sea carried by rivers deposited near the estuary，forming the subaqueous delta. However，previous researches has shown that sediment into sea carried by many rivers all over the world always forms a large scale of distribution along the estuarine coastal areas that thousands of kilometers away from the estuary. Resuspension of estuarine and coastal sediment plays an important role in the sediment long distance transport into sea. At present, it is widely recognized that sediment resuspension is caused by the wave and current scouring action on the surface of the seabed. This paper explored the process and mechanism of seabed sediment resuspension through flume simulation experiments; developed a conclusion that sediment resuspension is not only from the seabed surface, there is still a considerable part of sediments coming from the internal seabed through seepage "pump action";The proportion of the latter part in sediment resuspension is related to wave height, this experiment concluded that 5、10、15cm wave heights respectively accounted for 30.5%,43.8%,47.9%;The "pump action" is induced by the accumulation of excess pore water pressure inside the soil bed under the action of wave loading.