Sediment Re-suspension under Different Hydrodynamic Disturbances in Lake Taihu

Based on the collected wave and current data in July,2002 and April, 2003, Lake Taihu, the wave stress (Tw) and the current stress (Tc) were calculated for better understanding of sediment re suspension mechanism. The results show that Tc is much larger than Tw with the water surface slightly disturbed but no re suspension can be found. Under stronger disturbance, Tw is so much larger than Tc that the current effects can be ignored in the bottom stress calculation. The wave effect is more important than the current effect although Tc is slightly smaller than Tw when the water surface is forced by a moderate wind. In this case, the non linear wave current interaction was favored to be considered for the bottom stress calculation in Lake Taihu. The conclusion can benefit the coming research on nutrients release from sediment and suspended sediment concentration (SSC) response to the surface disturbance.