Definition
An autosuspension current may be defined as a particle-driven gravity flow that can persist indefinitely, without any external supply of energy. The ultimate criterion for autosuspension must, therefore, be lack of net deposition. This criterion is reinforced if the current is also capable of erosion.
Theoretical development
Daly (1936) and Kuenen (1938) both realized the possibility of the process now called “autosuspension”, although the first analysis of this phenomenon was made by Knapp (1938). He realized that the gravitational energy expended by a particle-driven gravity flow must be at least equal to that needed to maintain the suspended load, and derived a simple criterion for this situation: US/vs >1, where U is the velocity, S is the bed slope (small), and vs is the settling velocity of the sediment particles.
The same concept was discovered independently, and considerably extended, by Bagnold (1962). He was apparently the first to use the term “auto-suspension”....
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Pantin, H.M. (1978). Autosuspension. In: Sedimentology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg . https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-31079-7_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-31079-7_14
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