Sedimentary Geology, 39 (1984) 227-242 227

Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam - Printed in The Netherlands

PARALLEL LAMINATION DEVELOPED FROM UPPER-STAGE PLANE

BEDS: A MODEL BASED ON THE LARGER COHERENT STRUCTURES OF
THE TURBULENT BOUNDARY LAYER

J.R.L. ALLEN
Department of Geology, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 2AB (Great Britain)
(Accepted for publication November 8, 1983)

ABSTRACT

Allen, J.R.L., 1984. Parallel lamination developed from upper-stage plane beds: a model based on the
larger coherent structures of the turbulent boundary layer. Sediment. Geol., 39: 227-242.

The larger coherent flow structures of free-surface turbulent currents scale on flow thickness and mean
velocity, and are probably upstream-sloping horse-shoe vortices. Coupled to them is a spatial pattern of
bed shear stress which, as it moves with the downstream-convected structures, seems capable of
generating travelling bed waves on a deformable upper-stage plane sand bed. The wave height is on the
order of a few millimetres, but the horizontal dimensions can measure decimetres or metres, increasing
with flow thickness. As the bed shear stress is a maximum in the wave troughs, the sand preserved within
the body of each wave is expected to be normally graded texturally. The body of each wave constitutes a
graded lamina, a portion of which has some chance of permanent preservation under conditions of
long-term net deposition. The scale and grading of these hypothetical laminae are consistent with the
textural features and dimensions of parallel laminations associated with upper-stage plane beds observed
from the field. The model is not applicable to wave swash-backwash laminations, and does not describe
the case where slowly moving, steep-faced flat bars generate laminae.

INTRODUCTION

A m a j o r d e v e l o p m e n t in the field o f fluid m e c h a n i c s o f r e l e v a n c e to s e d i m e n t o l -

o g y is the r e a l i z a t i o n t h a t t u r b u l e n t flows a r e b o t h d e t e r m i n i s t i c a n d s t o c h a s t i c in
character, and that t h e y are c o m p o s e d of coherent flow configurations whose
p r o p e r t i e s d e p e n d u n i q u e l y o n s u c h f l o w c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s as thickness, m e a n v e l o c i t y
a n d s h e a r stress (see r e v i e w s b y L a u f e r , 1975; W i l l m a r t h , 1975; C a n t w e l l , 1981).
C o h e r e n t s t r u c t u r e s o c c u r o n t w o m a i n spatial scales in t u r b u l e n t b o u n d a r y
layers, r e p r e s e n t e d n a t u r a l l y b y river, tidal, a n d t u r b i d i t y c u r r e n t s a n d b y the w i n d
b l o w i n g p a s t a surface, p r o v i d e d t h a t the f l o w s are h y d r a u l i c a l l y s m o o t h or transi-
tional. T h e s m a l l e r o f t h e s e s t r u c t u r e s a r e s t r e a m w i s e streaks of a l t e r n a t e l y l o w - s p e e d
a n d h i g h - s p e e d fluid c o n f i n e d to the v i s c o u s s u b l a y e r a n d the r e g i o n j u s t a b o v e (e.g.

0037-0738/84/$03.00 1984 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.

228

Smith and Metzler, 1983). Their transverse spacing, oil the order of 0.01 m in a fast
water stream, depends on fluid viscosity and density and on the bed shear stress, a
quantity describing conditions at the flow boundary. Increasing ~tress decreases the
spacing. Low-speed streaks are subject to a local quasi-periodic process of decelera-
tion followed by eruption upward into the faster-moving outer parts of the flow.
accompanied by an inrush or downward sweep of high-momentum fluid toward the
bed (Grass, 1971; Kim et al., 1971). The whole sequence of events has come to be
known as the bursting cycle. Even far from the bed the size of individual bursts is
comparable with the transverse scale of the parent low-speed streaks (Head and
Bandyopadhyay, 1981). The time scale of bursting, however, depends not on bed
conditions but on the flow thickness and mean velocity, which are properties
representative of the outer flow (Rao et al., 1971). In the outer flow, and with a time
scale identical to that of bursting, are large flattened horseshoe eddies comparing in
size with the flow thickness (Brown and Thomas, 1977; Falco, 1977). These eddies,
separated from each other by narrow shear layers, are convected downstream at
speeds not much less than the mean flow velocity. They seem capable of retaining
their identity over downstream distances of a few times their length.
There is now little doubt that the parting lineations widely preserved oil upper-
stage plane sand beds of medium grade and finer are attributable to the smaller of
these coherent structures, that is, to the streaks and their bursting (Allen, 1964, 1968,
1970, 1982; Williams and Kemp, 1971; Karcz, 1974; Jackson, 1976; Mantz, 1978).
Several workers have tried to link such large bedforms as dunes with the larger
configurations of turbulent flow (e.g. Yalin, 1972; Jackson, 1976; Leeder, 1983), but
no-one has yet satisfactorily explained how coherent structures convected at not
much less than the mean flow velocity build and maintain bedforms, which relative
to that velocity, are virtually stationary. Moreover, when the time scale of the larger
coherent structures is allied with their correct convection velocity, the claimed
agreement in spatial scale between the bed and the flow features (Jackson, 1976)
proves insubstantial. The wave theory of bedforms developed by H a m m o n d and
Heathershaw (1981) is at present more appealing.
There is one aspect of bedding, however, which can be satisfactorily attributed to
the larger coherent structures of turbulent boundary layers. In the field, and also
experimentally, upper-stage plane sand beds are accompanied by parallel lamina-
tions of considerable lateral extent (decimetres to metres), but of a thickness varying
from a few to several grain diameters, or from a fraction of a miltimetre to several
millimetres (e.g. Allen, 1964; Jopling, 1964; Harms and Fahnestock, 1965; McKee et
al., 1967; Williams, 1971; Picard and High, 1973; Tunbridge, 1981: Turner, 1981).
Texturally, these laminae range from normally graded (most cases), through un-
graded (rare), to reversely graded (rare). Their origin has been much discussed but
hitherto without the emergence of a clear consensus. Recent turbulent boundary-layer
research, notably by Falco (1977), Brown and Thomas (1977), and Thomas and Bull
(1983), offers a resolution of these difficulties.
 229

ORIGINS PROPOSED FOR PARALLEL LAMINATIONS

Figure 1 shows representative parallel laminations formed beneath an upper-stage

plane bed. The rock is a texturally uniform well-sorted fine-grained sandstone
composed of stacked laminae approximately 0.001 m thick. Each carries parting
lineations and most can be traced across the width and height of the original
specimen. The similarity in the orientation of the lineations from lamina to lamina
implies that the entire sediment accumulated under similar conditions, that is, in the
one current.
Many workers, explaining such a combination of features, have qualitatively
recognized the importance of some periodic or quasi-periodic phenomenon, either
located in the flow or in the uppermost levels of the bed. Velocity pulses or, what
amounts to the same thing, the passage of large eddies have had a wide appeal

Fig. 1. Parallel-laminatedfine-grained sandstone, Brownstones Group (Lower Old Red Sandstone), Forest
of Dean, England. Portions of numerous laminae (broken across) are shown, the top surface of each
carrying parting lineations.
230

(Kuenen and Menard, 1952; Kuenen, 1953, 1957; Ten Haaf, 1956; Pettijohn, 1957:
Sanders, 1960, 1965; Bouma, 1962; Lombard, 1963; Allen, 1964; Gagny, 1964). On
the basis of field observations or laboratory experiments, other investigators have
explained parallel laminations by the travel of extremely flat symmetrical to strongly
asymmetrical bed waves (Jopling, 1964, 1966, 1967; Smith, 1971; McDonald and
Vincent, 1972; McBride et al., 1975; Allen, 1982), although not always in the context
of an upper-stage plane bed. Unrug (1959) and Wood and Smith (1959) saw parallel
laminations as caused by the segregation of the coarser grains into distinct clouds
within the flow. Hsi) (1959) attributed lamination to laminar flow at the bed. A
'like-seeks-like' mechanism of grain sorting in the bedload layer was advocated by
Moss (1962, 1963) and Kuenen (1965, 1966). A sorting process was also supported
by Frostick and Reid (1977).
The idea that parallel lamination depended on a deterministic flow phenomenon
achieved semi-quantitative expression under Bridge (1978), who proposed that each
texturally defined lamina represented a cycle of bursting, in circumstances of net
sediment accretion. The uplifting and eventually bursting streak was expected to
advect bedload sediment into the outer parts of the flow, from whence grains were
subsequently redeposited after sorting. The textural grading of the lamina was
suggested to vary with the general coarseness of the sediment in transport and with
the net deposition rate. A particularly appealing feature of Bridge's model is its
apparent ability to predict the streamwise scale of a lamina from the burst period,
dependent as pointed out on flow thickness and mean velocity. The difficulties--and
they are critical--concern the transverse scale of the lamination and the volume of a
typical lamina in relation to the burst from which it is supposed to have been largely
deposited. The visualizations using different methods by Grass (1971), Cantwell et
al. (1978) and Head and Bandyopadhyay (1981) prove that individual bursts
resemble in size the low-speed streaks from which they are derived, and at any one
time are rather spotty in their areal distribution. At the large shear stresses necessary
for upper-stage plane beds (Allen and Leeder, 1980), the transverse streak spacing is
less than approximately 0.01 m. Although the volume of fluid involved in a burst
may have achieved dimensions somewhat larger than this value by the time the outer
flow is reached, the volume of the burst remains nowhere near sufficient to explain
laminae that individually can measure decimetres to metres transversely as well as
parallel with flow. These dimensions, together with corresponding fluctuations of
bed shear stress able to effect short-term erosion and deposition, can be provided,
however, by the larger coherent structures of the turbulent boundary layer, which
also scale on flow thickness and mean velocity. A model of parallel lamination based
on these larger configurations is sketched below. It does not represent just a shift of
emphasis within the general bounds of Bridge's hypothesis; for although streak
bursting is intimately associated with the larger structures, there is as yet no evidence
that the larger configurations directly cause bursting (Thomas and Bull, 1983).
 231

DESCRIPTION OF THE MODEL

Larger coherent structures

Their character is best appreciated initially from flow visualizations. Nychas et al.
(1973) obtained some indication of the presence of large structures in turbulent
boundary layers, but Falco (1977) was the first to describe them in detail, using a
combination of flow-visualization and hot-wire anemometry. Releasing smoke into
the boundary layer, Falco found in vertical streamwise view that the boundary
between the smoke-filled and uncontaminated fluid became folded into large flat
quasi-periodic bulges, separated by narrow upstream-sloping zones in which the
uncontaminated outer fluid was drawn almost down to the bed (Fig. 2a). The fluid
within the smoke-defined bulges was much more turbulent than that outside and
folded down between them. Bulge spacing was rather larger than the boundary-layer
thickness, and the convection velocity was similar to the mean flow velocity.
Turbulence would therefore be observable only intermittently, but at a characteristic
mean period, at a fixed station near the outer edge of the boundary layer. Earlier
hot-wire work by Kovasznay et al. (1970), Antonia (1972), Sabot and Comte-Bellot
(1976), and Sabot et al. (1977) had demonstrated the intermittency of turbulence in
the outermost zones, and on a time scale generally speaking compatible with Falco's
observations.
The zones between bulges in Fig. 2a are shear layers which, at a fixed station in
the flow, are manifested as quasi-periodic sharp 'velocity steps' in the continuous
signal from a hot wire (Blackwelder and Kaplan, 1976; Thomas and Bull, 1983).
Similar' temperature steps' become detectable on warming the boundary layer (Chen
and Blackwelder, 1978; Antonia et al., 1982; Subramanian et al., 1982), run beneath
a roof so as to preserve gravitational stability. As each bulge travels past the sensor,
the relatively warm fluid just entrained from the boundary and carried downward
along the back of the bulge is quickly replaced at the measuring point by the much
cooler fluid being returned to the boundary behind the front of the following
structure. The presence of the bulges is also implied by other velocity patterns
(Nakagawa and Nezu, 1981) as well as the fluctuations of wall pressure detectable in
turbulent boundary layers (Willmarth and Wooldridge, 1962; Bull, 1967). These
various distinctive velocity and temperature signals have been used to establish (1)
the convection velocity of the bulges; and (2) the slope of the shear zones dividing
the configurations. The latter is approximately 18 (Brown and Thomas, 1977;
Thomas and Bull, 1983), comparing well with Head and Bandyopadhyay's (1981)
visual estimate of 20 . The bulge convection velocity varies within broad limits but
in terms of the convincing work of Thomas and Bull (1983) is typically 0.67 U0,
where U0 is the velocity of the undisturbed flow outside the boundary layer,
equivalent in the case of a free-surface flow to the surface velocity Us (Fig. 2g). As
the mean velocity Um of a turbulent free-surface flow is approximately 0.85 ~ , we
232

(a) ~- Flow Shear layer

' : . " t / ~ " ' . .I ,--~" .. . -'." ' " I " . : . ' . : I

"'- .. .I ~ : : " l / ~" " "' " .:' " -"'I ~ ' ." ..:'. ~ :,I s., .

~, " . . . . . . - / s ." " . " " - '/ ~ . , " " . ' " " I ~ " - ". '. " ' .
/ . - . . . . . ,,. : - . : . ..,+, , . . . . . . . . . ,- e* ~- ... .-. . -
i s. " ' " - , - . ,- "~ " " - - . . " . '. . ~ - - . " .- : . . . ,*" ~ o .- . . -.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ \\\ \\\\ \\ \ \\\ \\\\\\\\\\ \\\\\ \\\\\\\~\\'~\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

I(c) , .

7" ,_~. Uc ~ /_

ol c

u,
-=-
+LJ e) Erosion (g)
aJ/at I ~ ~, i~'"t - h r

_| Deposition

+ (f)
.It
0
J t

(h)
_=
. . . . H ~_ . . . . L ~ " G or ded lamina r~Ucx
 233

have Uc = 0.79 Um for the bulges in a water stream. Now the time scale of the bulges
is indistinguishable from that for streak bursting, and can be put in the same
non-dimensional form UsT/h, where T is the average time for a bulge to pass a fixed
station and the other quantities are chosen to refer to free surface flows (in addition
to the equivalence Us = U0, it is assumed that h = ~, the boundary-layer thickness).
Chen and Blackwelder (1978) obtained a non-dimensional bulge period of 2.6, close
to Nakagawa and Nezu's (1978) figure for streak bursting. Brown and Thomas
(1977) and Thomas and Bull (1983) report values close to 5, as obtained for streaks
by Laufer and Narayanan (1971), Rao et al. (1971), Heathershaw (1974, 1979), Ueda
and Hinze (1975), Gordon (1975), and Gordon and Witting (1977). Boils on a water
surface probably manifest bulges large enough to reach up through the full thickness
of the flow, and these have a non-dimensional period of about 7 (Jackson, 1976).
Multiplying T = 5 h / U s as the average by the convection velocity U = 0.67 Us gives
us L = 3.35 h as the bulge wavelength or streamwise scale.
From multi-level hot-wire and pressure signals, Brown and Thomas (1977), Falco
(1977) and Thomas and Bull (1983) found that the bulges could be represented as
'cat's eye' eddies when viewed in a vertical streamwise plane at the convection
velocity (Fig. 2b). The shear zones between bulges contain a saddle-point (marked
S), and it will be noticed that the near-bed flow is compressed at or just upstream of
the foot of each of the zones, suggesting that these are local maxima of boundary
shear stress.
Brown and Thomas (1977) and Thomas and Bull (1983) found from their signals
that the instantaneous bed shear stress ~" measured at a point varied quasi-periodi-
cally, such that:

T = Tm "~ l"sv( / ) "~ T' (1)

where ~m is the long-term mean, %v(t) the slowly varying part where t is time, and z'
the high-frequency fluctuating stress component. Now %v varied on the same time
scale T as the bulges and, from the further analysis of the signals, reached a
maximum at or shortly after the time when the foot of a shear zone was on
independent grounds inferred to have passed the station. As the downstream

Fig. 2. Summary of the larger coherent structures of the turbulent boundary layer, and their possible
effect on an upper-stage plane sand bed. See text for sources, a. General appearance of a smoke-filled
boundary layer showing bulges and upstream-sloping clear zones (shear layers), b. The same field as a but
showing the cat's eye flow pattern as seen by an observer travelling downstream at the convection velocity
of the bulges, c. The same field as b showing the downstream variation of bed shear stress, d.
Time-variation of shear stress and dependent bedload transport rate at a fixed station on the bed. e.
Time-variation of time-rate of change of the transport rate (erosion/deposition) at the same station as in
d. f. Effect of time-variation of bedload transport rate on the bed elevation at the same station as in d.
g. General definition diagram for a free-surface flow. h. Properties of predicted bed waves, the same field
as in a - c .
234

distance x is interchangeable with time through x = - Uct, this result means that the
bulges and the streamwise pattern of stress variation are coupled on the same
repeating distance or wavelength L = U~T = 3.35 h (Fig. 2c). The shear-stress pattern
is therefore convected downstream in step with the eddies.

Implications for a deformable granular boundary

Ignoring the high-frequency fluctuations ~" as too rapid significantly to affect

bedload sediment transport, the bed shear stress at a fixed point on an upper-stage
plane sand bed beneath a uniform flow can be expected from the above summary to
vary broadly as sketched in Fig. 2d. At the high transport stages represented by
upper-stage plane beds (Allen and Leeder, 1980), we can ignore the bed-material
threshold stress and regard the dry-mass bedload transport rate J as proportional
simply to [% + 'rsv(/)] 3/2. Hence J will vary with time broadly as in Fig. 2d,
provided that the time scale of % ( t ) is not so small that there is an appreciable lag.
The likelihood of a significant lag seems negligible, for in aqueous flows saltating
grains rise no higher than 2-3 diameters above the static bed (Abbott and Francis,
1977). As an illustration, consider a flow of h = 2 m and U, = 1 m s-~ transporting
quartz sand of diameter D = 2.5 X 10 -4 and terminal fall velocity V = 0.05 m s- ~. A
particle starting at a height 3D above the bed would sink to the bottom in a mere
1.5 x 10 -2 s, as compared to the 10 s period of the stress variation.
As the slowly varying bed shear stress and bedload transport rate fluctuate at the
station, alternate deposition and erosion will follow in harmony, according to the
continuity relation:
1 3J
R - (2)
Ugr o3t

where R (kg m - 2 s- l) is the transfer rate (positive for deposition) and Ugr the mean
grain transport velocity in the bedload layer, equal in deep flow to /_/,1/9 (Bagnold,
1966). Strictly, Ugr may also be a function of time, because of the effect of erosion
and deposition on the local bed level, but in a deep flow this second-order effect may
be ignored, as we expect only small changes in the vertical position of the bed.
Introducing the bed-sediment dry bulk density 3', the time-rate of change of bed
elevation is given by:
dy _ 1 3J
dt ~eg r 3t (3)

where y is the bed height measured relative to a chosen datum. The bed elevation
itself is of course the integral of eq. 3. Figure 2e and f shows how 3J/3t and y vary
with time at a fixed station, in consequence of the temporal variation of I" beneath
the convected bulges and its induced fluctuation in the bedload transport rate.
Notice the phase changes between J(t), (3J/3t)(t) and y(t).
 235

An upper-stage plane bed is thus shown to be only nominally plane. Again noting
the interchangeability of streamwise distance and time through x = - Uct, the
preceding relationships imply the presence on the bed of sediment waves of celerity
U~ = 0.67U~ -- 0.79Um and period T ~ 5 h / U s, and hence of streamwise length (wave-
length) equal to 3.35 h, as calculated for the scale of the stress variations (Fig. 2b
and h). Their troughs lie beneath the positions of greatest mean bed shear stress and
their crests where the stress is least. The height H of these bed waves is given by
integrating eq. 3 over an appropriate period of duration 7"/2 after introducing a
suitable bedload transport relation (Fig. 2f). It can safely be assumed for present
purposes that:
J = k['r m + asv sin(2~rt/T)] 3/2 (4)

where k (kg-1/2 ma/2 s 2) is a transport coefficient, and asv (N m - 2 ) is the amplitude

of the time-variation of ~'s~, both to be determined empirically.
The downstream advance of these predicted bed waves should create ephemeral
laminae of maximum thickness H and minimum streamwise length L = 3.35 h. Their
transverse scale is much less certain, but Brown and Thomas (1977) and Thomas and
Bull (1983) suggest that the eddies of Fig. 2a and b (probably of horseshoe form; see
also Laufer, 1975) have a width of 0.15-0.5L, suggesting for the laminae a greatest
transverse dimension of 0.5-1.68h. The laminae are called ephemeral because the
case analysed is of (long-term) steady uniform flow, permitting neither permanent
deposition nor erosion. Only if the regime is accretionary (the time scale is likely to
be very much larger than T ~ 5 h / U s ) can portions of some laminae be permanently
preserved. The thicknesses of laminae observed from the field should therefore not
exceed the expected range of H values. Inspection of eqs. 3 and 4 shows that H
increases with the long-term mean bed shear stress. The least value of H is therefore
set by the flow condition defining the lower boundary of the existence field for
upper-stage plane beds. Empirically, this occurs at 8or-~ 0.6 (Allen and Leeder,
1980), where:

8 ~'m
(o-p)gD (5)
is the non-dimensional bed shear stress, o and p the sediment and fluid densities,
respectively, and g the acceleration due to gravity.

Geometry of bed waves and laminae

The integral of eq. 3 yields quantitative results only when the general flow
conditions are defined and empirical values provided for k and asv.
Guy et al. (1966) produced upper-stage plane beds in 11 laboratory runs involving
fine- and medium-grained quartz sands (Table I), yielding a mean k of 0.0435 kg-1/2
m 1/2 s 2 (range 0.0227-0.0869). Bridge (1981) reviewed the intensity of turbulence in
236

TABLE 1

S u m m a r y of upper-stage plane-bed runs in fine and m e d i u m grained quartz sands (Guy et al.. 1966)

M e a n value Range

Particle diameter, D ( m ) 1.9 10 4 2.7 10 4

2 . 8 1 0 4, 4.5 x 10 4
3.210 4,3.3x10 4
M e a n flow velocity, Um(m s l) 1.16 0.881 1.640
D a r c y - W e i s b a c h friction coefficient, f 0.0280 0.0t 11-0.0484
M e a n bed shear stress, % ( N m 2) 4.75 2.59-9.14
Bedload transport rate, J (kg m i s t ) 0.405 (/.191 - 0.779
T r a n s p o r t coefficient, k (kg - 1/2 ml/2 s 2 ) 0.0435 0.0227-0.0869

turbulent boundary layers, concluding that the root-mean-square value of the bed
shear stress is roughly 0.4 times the long-term mean stress. As Brown and Thomas
(1977) and Thomas and Bull (1983) all found that a~v, the amplitude of %(t), is of
the same order as the root-mean-square of %, we can write a~ ~ 0.4 %. The
long-term mean stress is conveniently calculated using:

,c,,,= ~ p U m (6)

where f is the Darcy-Weisbach bed friction coefficient, with a mean of 0.028 for the
Colorado experiments (Table I).
Figure 3 shows values of H calculated from eqs. 3 and 4 using the above k and a~v
and for the representative general flow and bed conditions h = 2 m, D = 2.5 10 .`4
m, and ~, = 1600 kg m 3 (roughly 40% porosity). The value of H increases with Um
and with 0/0or but is very small for all realistic conditions. The height is a mere
1.33 x 10 -3 m at the threshold of upper-stage plane beds and only a little over 0.01
m for the extreme flow conditions implied by U,,, = 2.5 m s 1, representing a Froude
number Un,/(gh) w~ = 0.56. At the given depth of 2 m the calculated wavelength is
6.7 m. The predicted bed waves are therefore extremely flat; the index L / H is of
order 5 x 103 at the threshold of the plane-bed condition and only one order of
magnitude smaller in the most extreme stage.

Textural grading of laminae

The amplitude of the slowly varying stress in eq. 1 approaches one-half of the
long-term mean value, generating an approximately two-fold range of stress at a
fixed point as each bed wave passes by. In the context of upper-stage plane beds,
such an extreme variation should lead to a detectable textural sorting in the sediment
deposited on the waves, probably through its effect on the grade of the suspended
load. The suspension threshold increases with particle size and terminal fall velocity
 237

It)
O Mean flow velocity, Um (m e - I )
o
o -" 1.25 1.50 1.75 2.00 2.25 2"50
14 I I I I I I I I

,\
12 6

A
E
I0
j 5
4
0 :Z:
x
3 -4
~ 8
..2
o~

" 6
>
\'",, f 2 ==
It.

4 10 3

8
7
6
5
0 I I I I I I I I I
0 I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 I0

Relative stress, B/19cr

Fig. 3. Bed-waveheight and flatness as a function of relative stress and mean flow velocity for the flow
and transport conditions described in the text.

(Bagnold, 1966; Middleton, 1977; Bridge, 1981), and the relative proportion of
grains of a given diameter that can be suspended rises steeply with increasing bed
shear stress (Abbott and Francis, 1977).
Given these general conditions and relations, the ephemeral lamina represented
by. a bed wave is likely to be normally graded. As the shear stress declines upstream
from the trough to the crest of the bed wave (Fig. 2c, f and h), the sediment in the
bedload layer, from which most deposition is to be expected, should be coarser in
the trough than at the crest, owing to a relatively greater loss of the finer grains to
the suspended load. Hence the lamina should be normally graded, the coarsest
sediment occurring immediately above the erosion surface swept out by the wave
troughs (Fig. 2h).

CONCLUDING DISCUSSION

The model predicts the occurrence on upper-stage plane sand beds of long bed
waves of little height that are driven rapidly downstream and forced by the larger
238

coherent turbulence structures to which they are coupled through a pattern of bed
shear stress. Under uniform steady conditions each bed wave seems capable of
generating a normally graded ephemeral lamina with a maximum thickness of the
order of a few millimetres, a streamwise dimension a few times the flow thickness,
and a transverse scale roughly equal to the flow depth. When net accretion prevails,
portions of some bed waves could be permanently preserved. The dimensions and
textural features of the predicted laminae are clearly compatible with the characteris-
tics of parallel laminations described in association with upper-stage plane beds, as
summarized in the Introduction.
Rapidly moving long bed waves just a few millimetres high will be hard to detect
beneath a fully developed bedload layer and accompanying suspension, even under
ideal conditions, but the attempt should now be made by investigators possessing
large-scale laboratory facilities. Bed waves with some of the required properties have
already been reported experimentally, but generally their nature is either not wholly
clear or they fail to comply in some essential respect with the predicted structures.
Einstein and Chien (1953) reported flat bed waves from some of their flume
experiments, but the nature of the waves is in doubt. To judge from the observations
recorded, certain of Kennedy's (1961) upper-stage plane beds may have carried
extremely flat waves, but whether these were of the necessary celerity is uncertain.
Some of the claimed transitional and upper-stage plane beds created in a pipe by
McDonald and Vincent (1972) bore long bed waves approximately 0.01 m in height
that generated a coarse parallel lamination. Their celerity was a very small fraction
of the mean flow velocity, however, and they are clearly not the predicted bedforms.
Taylor and Vanoni (1972) noticed that some upper-stage plane beds carried long
waves only 0.002 m in height described as running through the flume. That their
celerity may have been high is also implied by the difficulties that were encountered
in obtaining reliable sediment concentration profiles.
The model provides one possible explanation for parallel laminations originating
at high sediment transport stages. Although developed largely on the basis of
laboratory data, there are no grounds for supposing that the model is invalid at the
much larger Reynolds numbers characteristic of field conditions. Instrumental
observations by Heathershaw (1974, 1979), Gordon (1975), and Gordon and Witting
(1977) prove the occurrence in geophysical flows of coherent turbulence structures
on the same time scale as those identifiable in the laboratory (Rao et al., 1971). The
surface boils recorded by Coleman (1969) and Jackson (1976) from rivers have the
same scale and are probably direct manifestations of the large horseshoe eddies
underpinning the model. The hypothesis should therefore be applicable to such
naturally occurring free-surface aqueous flows as rivers, tidal streams, and turbidity
currents. It does not apply to swash-backwash laminations, and does not describe
the production of parallel laminations from flat but slow-moving bedforms (e.g.
Smith, 1971; McBride et al., 1975).
 239

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