Variability of wave-induced ripple migration in wave-flume experiments and its implications for sediment transport

A thorough discussion of results from laboratory experiments with regular waves sheds light on the gap that lies between the sediment transport associated with ripple migration and the performance of a standard bedload transport formula in terms of bed shear concept. It is found that the extent of deviations of the bedload transport formula by Ribberink (1998) from the measured rate of sediment transport associated with ripple migration becomes systematically apparent under conditions of increasing settling time factor Ωs (= η/(w0T); η is the ripple height, w0 the settling velocity and T the wave period). Re-examination of previous two field studies demonstrates a further reinforcement for phase-lag argument addressed in this paper.