Estimation of bed shear stress and analysis of sediment resuspension in Lake Chaohu, China

Resuspended sediment is an important carrier of underwater material circulation, and bed shear stress is usually considered to be closely related to sediment resuspension. To analyze the resuspension dynamics in severely eutrophic Lake Chaohu, China, three fixed stations were set up to collect wave, current, and suspended sediment concentrate (SSC) data under windy weather, and two significant sediment resuspension events were recorded. Based on the Gaussian-shaped spectrum characteristics of waves in Lake Chaohu, the wave orbital velocity was estimated by using the wave parameter method. The selection of the general wave spectrum is important for the accurate estimation of wave orbital velocity. The results of the simple linear wave method were very similar to those of the wave parameter method with a Gaussian-shaped spectrum in Lake Chaohu. The total bed shear stress combining waves and currents during the observation period was calculated, and most of it was contributed by wind-driven waves. The bed material of Lake Chaohu has silt-enriched and weak cohesive features, and an examination of critical shear stress showed that the modified Shields curve method was still applicable to Lake Chaohu. When a sediment resuspension event occurred, the vertical gradient of SSC increased significantly, and the peak SSC value depended on the peak value of bed shear stress. As a predictor, bed shear stress only showed a good linear relationship during sediment resuspension events. At other times, the prediction of SSC using bed shear stress may be biased, especially at the time after a significant sediment resuspension event.