Sand transport in the surf zone of a dissipative beach

Suspended sand transport measurements carried out on a meso-tidal beach at Egmond aan Zee, The Netherlands, during two Coast3D field campaigns in spring and fall of 1998 were used to examine the sand suspension mechanism and transport rates under waves. Two tests measured under similar wave conditions showed very different suspension patterns, due to different scales of suspension related to the bed form dimensions. Despite a wide range of bed form dimensions found in the field, the general trend of the data could reasonably well be predicted using a numerical model. Driven by the locally measured hydrodynamics and using a fixed bed roughness height the model predicted the current-related suspended transport rates near Egmond aan Zee shows reasonably good agreement with measured values (based on tuning of bed roughness).