scholarly journals GROIN LENGTH AND THE GENERATION OF EDGE WAVES

1976 ◽  
Vol 1 (15) ◽  
pp. 85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael K. Gaughan ◽  
Paul D. Komar

A series of wave basin experiments were undertaken to better understand the selection of groin spacings and lengths. Rather than obtaining edge waves with the same period as the normal incident waves, subharmonic edge waves were produced with a period twice that of the incoming waves and a wave length equal to the groin spacing. Rip currents were therefore not formed by the interactions of the synchronous edge waves and normal waves as proposed by Bowen and Inman (1969). Rips were present in the wave basin but their origin is uncertain and they were never strong enough to cause beach erosion. The generation of strong subharmonic edge waves conforms with the work of Guza and Davis (1974) and Guza and Inman (1975). The subharmonic edge waves interacted with the incoming waves to give an alternating sequence of surging and collapsing breakers along the beach. Their effects on the swash were sufficient to erode the beach in some places and cause deposition in other places. Thus major rearrangements of the sand were produced between the groins, but significant erosion did not occur as had been anticipated when the study began. By progressively decreasing the length of the submerged portions of the groins, it was found that the strength (amplitude) of the edge waves decreases. A critical submerged groin length was determined whereby the normally incident wave field could not generate resonant subharmonic edge waves of mode zero with a wavelength equal to the groin spacing. The ratio of this critical length to the spacing of the groins was found in the experiments to be approximately 0.15 to 0.20, and did not vary with the steepness of the normal incident waves.

Author(s):  
Zhangping Wei ◽  
Robert A Dalrymple

This study investigates vorticity generation by short-crested wave breaking by using the mesh-free Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics model, GPUSPH. The short-crested waves are created by generating intersecting wave trains in a numerical wave basin with a beach. The capability of GPUSPH to simulate short-crested waves is first validated by laboratory measurements. Then we examine short-crested wave breaking with two incident wave heights H = 0.2 m and 0.3 m. The larger incident wave breaks at the toe of the planar beach, while the smaller incident wave breaks above the planar beach. The breaking wave profile, current field, nearshore circulation pattern, and vertical vorticity field due to short-crested wave breaking are carefully compared between two incident waves.


2019 ◽  
Vol 868 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanna Vittori ◽  
Paolo Blondeaux ◽  
Giovanni Coco ◽  
R. T. Guza

A monochromatic, small amplitude, normally incident standing wave on a sloping beach is unstable to perturbation by subharmonic (half the frequency) edge waves. At equilibrium, edge wave shoreline amplitudes can exceed incident wave amplitudes. Here, the effect of incident wave randomness on subharmonic edge wave excitation is explored following a weakly nonlinear stability analysis under the assumption of narrow-band incident random waves. Edge waves respond to variations in both incident wave phase and amplitude, and the edge wave amplitudes and incident wave groups vary on similar time scales. When bottom friction is included, intermittent subharmonic edge wave excitation is predicted due to the combination of bottom friction and wave phase. Edge wave amplitude can be near zero for long times, but for short periods reaches relatively large values, similar to amplitudes with monochromatic incident waves and no friction.


Author(s):  
Xiantao Zhang ◽  
Scott Draper ◽  
Hugh Wolgamot ◽  
Wenhua Zhao ◽  
Lifen Chen ◽  
...  

Abstract In this paper, 2D greenwater overtopping of a floating box is numerically investigated using CFD. The incident waves used are compact wave groups which correspond to the maximum relative wave elevation at the edge of the box according to linear theory. The motion of the box for which only heave and pitch modes are considered is calculated using linear potential flow theory and then prescribed in the CFD simulation. It is found that the normalized maximum horizontal momentum flux of greenwater overtopped onto the moving box is consistent with that for a fixed box when the incident wave length is much smaller than the box length. For longer incident wave lengths there is arguably more scatter in the momentum flux compared with that of a fixed box, although the result is still bounded by a value of 1.5 times that predicted by a classical dam break solution. This additional scatter is shown to be due to the effect of box motion.


1984 ◽  
Vol 1 (19) ◽  
pp. 59 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Huntley ◽  
Chang S. Kim

Although many field experiments have shown that surf beat motion, with periods longer than incident wave periods, becomes the dominant feature of the nearshore velocity field as the shoreline is approached, the nature of this motion is still not fully understood. This paper describes a field experiment on a sheltered beach which was designed to distinguish between long wave motion directly forced by the incident wave envelope (as suggested by Longuet-Higgins and Stewart, 1962), and wave motion which is only weakly coupled to the local incident waves and therefore essentially free. The results for on/offshore flows show that low frequency surf beat (frequency less than 0.03 Hz) is strongly correlated with the wave envelope, suggesting the dominance of forced wave motion at these frequencies. In a higher frequency band, between 0.06 and 0.095 Hz, the correlation is generally much lower, suggesting that free wave motion, possibly subharmonic edge waves, is significant in this band. The longshore flows are much more weakly correlated to the envelope of either the longshore or on/offshore components of the orbital velocity. This is consistent with previous observations that edge wave motion dominates the longshore surf beat motion.


1968 ◽  
Vol 1 (11) ◽  
pp. 66
Author(s):  
R.E. Nece ◽  
E.P. Richey ◽  
V. Seetharama Rao

Experimental results axe presented for a laboratory study of the effectiveness of hydraulic breakwaters in dissipating deep water waves. Test data are reported for a range of wave steepnesses for wave length: water depth ratios ranging from 0.375 to 1.343. It is shown that the effectiveness of hydraulic breakwaters depends upon the steepness of the incident wave and upon the ratio of the momentum of the opposing surface current created by the breakwater to the momentum of the incident waves. Results also are compared with the theoretical predictions of Taylor which are appropriate to deep water waves. Data are presented in a form allowing the determination of hydraulic breakwater manifold discharge characteristics in order to achieve specified attenuation for a particular incident wave. It is concluded that while the hydraulic breakwater is better adapted to deep water waves than to shallow water waves upon which prior studies of the device have concentrated, it is generally inefficient for most practical cases because of excess power requirements. Some possible field applications are indicated.


Author(s):  
Eirini Spentza ◽  
Chris Swan

This paper concerns the nonlinear interaction of waves with a floating vessel. A detailed experimental study has been undertaken in a 3-D wave basin, using a scaled model tanker subject to a variety of incident wave conditions. The vessel, which is free to move in heave, pitch and roll, has a draft of 14m (at full-scale) and is subject to a range of incident wave periods propagating at right angles to the side shell of the vessel. Measurements undertaken with and without the vessel in place allow the diffracted-radiated wave field to be identified. The laboratory data indicate that the diffracted-radiated wave pattern varies significantly with the incident wave period. Detailed analysis of the experimental results has identified a hitherto unexpected second-order freely propagating wave harmonic generated due to the presence of the vessel. Given its frequency content and its relatively slow speed of propagation, this harmonic leads to a significant steepening of the wave field around the vessel and therefore has an important role to play in terms of the occurrence of wave slamming. Physical insights are provided concerning the latter and the practical implications of the overall wave-structure interactions are considered.


1978 ◽  
Vol 1 (16) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Robert King ◽  
Ronald Smith

Weak nonlinear interactions in water of non-constant depth between an incident wave, a side-band incident wave and a relatively low frequency trapped wave are shown to lead to the generation of the trapped wave. Three situations are considered in detail: edge waves in a wide rectangular basin, progressive edge waves on a straight beach, and standing waves in a narrow wave tank.


Author(s):  
Maria Clavero ◽  
Pedro Folgueras ◽  
Pilar Diaz-Carrasco ◽  
Miguel Ortega-Sanchez ◽  
Miguel A. Losada

In the 14th ICCE, Battjes (1974) showed that a single similarity parameter only, embodying both the effects of slope angle and incident wave steepness, was important for many aspects of waves breaking on impermeable slopes, and suggested to call it the "Iribarren number", denoted by "Ir". Ahrens and McCartney (1975) verified the usefulness of Ir to describe run-up and stability on rough permeable slopes. Since then, many researchers applied Ir to characterize and to develop formulae for the design of breakwaters and to verify their stability. On the other hand, depending on their typology, breakwaters reflect, dissipate, transmit, and radiate incident wave energy. Partial standing wave patterns are likely to occur at all types of breakwater, thus playing an important role in defining the wave regime in front of, near (seaward and leeward), and inside the breakwater. The characteristics of the porous medium, relative grain size D/L and relative width, Aeq/L2, are relevant magnitudes in that wave pattern (Vilchez et al. 2016), being D the grain diameter, L the wave length and Aeq the porous area per unit section under the mean water level. Aeq/L2 is a scattering parameter controlling the averaged transformation of the wave inside the porous section of the structure. For a vertical porous breakwater (Type A), Aeq is simply B · h, and for a constant depth, the scattering parameter is reduced to B/L, which is the relative breakwater width.


2020 ◽  
Vol 78 (4) ◽  
pp. 229-261
Author(s):  
Robert O. Reid

Essentially two classes of free edge waves can exist on a sloping continental shelf in the presence of Coriolis force. For small longshore wave length, fundamental waves of the first class behave like Stokes edge waves. However, for great wave lengths (of several hundred kilometers or more) the characteristics of the first class are significantly altered. In the northern hemisphere the phase speed for waves moving to the right (facing shore from the sea) exceeds the speed for waves which move to the left. Also, the group velocity for a given edge wave mode has a finite upper limit. Waves of the second class are essentially quasigeostrophic boundary waves with very low frequency and, like Kelvin waves, move only to the left (again facing shore from the sea). Unlike Stokes edge waves, those of the quasigeostrophic class are associated with large vorticity. Examination of the formal solution for forced edge waves indicates that those of the second class may be excited significantly by a wind stress vortex. Also, in contrast to the conclusion of Greenspan (1956), it is proposed that a hurricane can effectively excite the higher order edge wave modes in addition to the fundamental if wind stress is considered.


1976 ◽  
Vol 1 (15) ◽  
pp. 75 ◽  
Author(s):  
David G. Aubrey ◽  
Douglas L. Inman ◽  
Charles E. Nordstrom

Beach profiles have been measured at Torrey Pines Beach, California for four years and correlated with tides and accurate spectral estimates of the incident wave field. Characteristic equilibrium beach profiles persist for time spans of up to at least two weeks in response to periods of uniform incident waves. These changes in the beach profiles are primarily due to on-offshore sediment transport which can be related to variations in wave characteristics and tidal phase. The most rapid readjustment of the beach profile occurs during high wave energy conditions coincident with spring tides. Alternatively, the highest berm building is associated with moderate to low waves that coincide with spring tides.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document