Understanding the motion thresholds of shells is important, as shell motion allows the analysis of beach profiles, prevents excessive erosion of the coastline, and helps to resource the use of discarded shells, providing new ideas for the protection of beaches. In this study, the orientational motions and motion thresholds of two types of typical molluscan shells, bivalve and gastropod shells, were investigated by means of flume experiments. The final orientations with the statistically highest number of occurrences during the orientational motions of each shell were used as the initial orientations for the respective threshold flow velocity measurements. The critical Shields parameter and the incipient mean velocity of the flow were used to represent the critical threshold of the motion. The critical Shields parameters for bivalve shells in the convex upward position were overall higher on average than those for gastropod shells. The experimental data showed that the incipient mean flow velocities of bivalve shells in the convex upward position were about 1.4–2.8 times larger than those in the convex downward position. The incipient mean velocity data were regressed to obtain the motion threshold equations applicable to bivalve shells in the convex upward and convex downward positions as well as gastropod shells under different final orientations.

Understanding settling motion of coral grains is important in terms of protection of coral reef systems and resotoration of the associated ecosystems. In this paper, a series of laboratory experiments was conducted to investigate the settling motion, using optical microscopy to measure shape parameters of coral grains and the particle-filtering-based object tracking to reconstruct the three-dimensional trajectory. Three characteristic descent regimes, namely, tumbling, chaotic and fluttering, are classified based on the three-dimensional trajectory, the spiral radius variation and the velocity spectrum. It is demonstrated that if one randomly picks up one coral grain, then the probabilities of occurrence of the three regimes are approximately $26\,\%$ , $42\,\%$ and $32\,\%$ , respectively. We have shown that first, the dimensionless settling velocity generally increases with the non-dimensional diameter and Corey shape factor and second, the drag coefficient generally decreases with the Reynolds number and Corey shape factor. Based on this, the applicability of existing models on predicting settling velocity and drag coefficient for coral grains is demonstrated further. Finally, we have proposed extended models for predicting the settling velocity. This study contributes to better understanding of settling motion and improves our predictive capacity of settling velocity for coral grains with complex geometry.

In this study, the incipient motion thresholds of coral sediment with the action of oscillatory currents were experimentally recorded by conducting a total of 405 laboratory experiments, including an analysis of nine sieve median diameters, five water depths, and four wave periods. The coral sediment Shields parameters for oscillatory flow were compared to those for unidirectional flow and to those of shell Shields parameters for oscillatory flow. The results showed that there was an extensive scatter range in the Shields parameter for oscillatory flow of coral sediments. Additionally, the coral sediment Shields parameter for oscillatory flow was slightly different from that for unidirectional flow. The use of the Shields curve form to represent the coral sediment threshold for oscillatory flow was not appropriate. Using the critical near-bottom peak velocity to represent the incipient motion threshold of coral sediment for oscillatory flow was a better option. The use of experimental particle data analyses and the equation for the critical near-bottom peak velocity of quartz sand for oscillatory flow was modified to obtain a critical near-bottom peak velocity equation for coral sediment. This equation adds the influence of shape through the median Corey shape factor.

This study experimentally documented the thresholds of critical motion for coral sediments by conducting a total of 225 laboratory experiments that included the analysis of nine median sediment diameters and five water depths. A shape factor, Sf, which quantifies the shape of a single particle, was also extended to sediment as a whole and evaluated during the investigation. Both the critical Shields parameter and the incipient mean velocity were used to represent the critical thresholds of motion. The thresholds of motion for coral sediment were then compared with the results from quartz sand. The experimental results show that the critical threshold of motion is smaller for coral sediment than for quartz sand of the same median sieve diameter due to differences in particle shape in spite of the coral sediment being of higher density. For diameters higher than 1.425 mm, the critical Shields parameters and incipient mean velocities tend to have similar values to quartz sand. The differences between the two increased significantly for median sieve diameters <1.075 mm. Based on the experimental data, Shields curve bands and equations for the incipient mean velocity for sediments of differing shape factors were obtained for coral sediments as well as marine carbonate grains.

The motion of particle clouds (i.e., sediment clouds) usually can be found in engineering applications such as wastewater discharge, land reclamation, and marine bed capping. In this paper, a series of laboratory tests are conducted on coral sand to investigate the shape feature of the single particle and the mixing processes of the coral sand particle clouds. The shape of coral sand particle is measured and quantified. The experimental results demonstrate that the shape of coral sand particles tends to be spherical as the particle size decreases, and empirical equations were established to explain the variation of D 50 and f S,50 of coral sand. Compared with the silica sand, the evolution of the coral sand particle cloud still experiences three stages, but the threshold for the Reynolds number of particle clouds entering the next stage changes. Further, the normalized axial distance of the coral sand particle clouds is 58% smaller. The frontal velocity exhibits similar varying tendency for the coral sand particle cloud. Considering the difference in shape between coral sand particles and silica sand particles, a semi-empirical formula was proposed based on the original silica sand prediction formula by adding the shape factor and the experimental data of 122 µm⩽ D 50 ⩽842 µm. It can predict the frontal velocity of the coral sand particle clouds.