FIELD CALCULATIONS OF WAVE ENERGY DISSIPATION AND RELATED BEACH PROFILE

The process by which wave energy dissipates across the surf zone and its affect on the bed profile is, of course, a topic of immediate concern and debate. Various concepts of the wave energy dissipation process have been modeled, however, additional research is needed before confidence can be placed in a particular calculation scheme. In addition to the problems associated with proper model derivation a method of application and result interpretation of actual surf zone field data must be devised and understood. This is, of course, prerequisite to any realistic use of a wave energy dissipation model in an engineering project. The following study was therefore conducted in order to examine the applicability of surf zone field data to wave energy dissipation models and to investigate the bed profile relationship. Two wave energy dissipation models were selected for comparison in this study, the 'Undertow Model'(UM) which is based on the conservation of wave energy flux across the surf zone (3), and the 'Turbulent Bore Model'(TBM) which is based on hydraulic jump theory (2). Individual waves were identified in the wave record by employing the zero up-crossing method, and wave energy calculations were based on small amplitude wave theory, Svendsen's nonlinearity parameter Bo (4), and the 1/3 Significant Wave classification.