Modeling Marsh Dynamics Using a 3-D Coupled Wave-Flow-Sediment Model

Salt marshes are dynamic biogeomorphic systems that respond to external physical factors, including tides, sediment transport, and waves, as well as internal processes such as autochthonous soil formation. Predicting the fate of marshes requires a modeling framework that accounts for these processes in a coupled fashion. In this study, we implement two new marsh dynamic processes in the 3-D COAWST (coupled-ocean-atmosphere-wave sediment transport) model. The processes added are the erosion of the marsh edge scarp caused by lateral wave thrust from surface waves and vertical accretion driven by biomass production on the marsh platform. The sediment released from the marsh during edge erosion causes a change in bathymetry, thereby modifying the wave-energy reaching the marsh edge. Marsh vertical accretion due to biomass production is considered for a single vegetation species and is determined by the hydroperiod parameters (tidal datums) and the elevation of the marsh cells. Tidal datums are stored at user-defined intervals as a hindcast (on the order of days) and used to update the vertical growth formulation. Idealized domains are utilized to verify the lateral wave thrust formulation and show the dynamics of lateral wave erosion leading to horizontal retreat of marsh edge. The simulations of Reedy and Dinner Creeks within the Barnegat Bay estuary system demonstrate the model capability to account for both lateral wave erosion and vertical accretion due to biomass production in a realistic marsh complex. The simulations show that vertical accretion is dominated by organic deposition in the marsh interior, whereas deposition of mineral estuarine sediments occurs predominantly along the channel edges. The ability of the model to capture the fate of the sediment can be extended to model to simulate the impacts of future storms and relative sea-level rise (RSLR) scenarios on salt-marsh ecomorphodynamics.

A novel planar, broadband, high gain lateral wave antenna array for body scanning applications

Three-dimensional body scanning systems are increasingly used in sensitive public areas such as airports. By providing a high resolution image of a person from all sides, it is possible to detect potential metallic, ceramic and explosive threats. For these systems, it is essential to design broadband antennas with a fan beam, highly directional radiation in one plane and wide in the other plane, and characterized by phase center stability as a function of frequency. In this paper, the planar lateral wave antenna (LWA) array is proposed to achieve these radiation requirements. The LWA has two critical shortcomings: the flaring part and the dielectric matching layers (MLs), to operate over very broad frequency bands. In this work, these shortcomings are overcomed by forming a connected array of planar LWAs to improve broadband performance and by applying necessary perforations on the dense dielectric lens antenna to create different effective relative permittivity regions. An eight element connected and perforated LWA array is designed to operate in the 8–24 GHz frequency band. The drilled holes are proved to play a similar critical role of MLs in internal reflection suppression. The results emphasize all crucial demands for body scanning systems.

Estimation of Rail Axial Force in High-Speed Railway Ballastless Track Based on Wave Modes

To estimate the rail axial force of high-speed railway ballastless track, the reasonable index without complex measuring or error correction process is proposed. Taking the ballastless track structure in high-speed railway as the research object, the wave motion of periodic ballastless track is studied using the wave finite element method. It is found that some standing wave modes are linearly correlated with the rail axial force and thus can be considered as the basic indices for rail axial force estimation. A further in situ experiment according to the modal test method is performed and the feasibility of different wave modes for estimating rail axial force is discussed. Experiment results show that the lateral wave mode coincides well with the theoretical result while there is a large difference for the vertical wave mode. To explicate the difference, the temperature-dependent properties of the fastening are tested additionally. Parametric analysis shows that the frequency shift of vertical wave mode is greatly affected by the fastening temperature-dependent characteristics including the rail pad, elastic pad, and fastener clamping force, while the frequency shift of lateral wave mode is mainly determined by the rail axial force.

Ship waves on uniform shear current at finite depth: wave resistance and critical velocity

We present a comprehensive theory for linear gravity-driven ship waves in the presence of a shear current with uniform vorticity, including the effects of finite water depth. The wave resistance in the presence of shear current is calculated for the first time, containing in general a non-zero lateral component. While formally apparently a straightforward extension of existing deep water theory, the introduction of finite water depth is physically non-trivial, since the surface waves are now affected by a subtle interplay of the effects of the current and the sea bed. This becomes particularly pronounced when considering the phenomenon of critical velocity, the velocity at which transversely propagating waves become unable to keep up with the moving source. The phenomenon is well known for shallow water, and was recently shown to exist also in deep water in the presence of a shear current (Ellingsen, J. Fluid Mech., vol. 742, 2014, R2). We derive the exact criterion for criticality as a function of an intrinsic shear Froude number $S\sqrt{b/g}$ ($S$ is uniform vorticity, $b$ size of source), the water depth and the angle between the shear current and the ship’s motion. Formulae for both the normal and lateral wave resistance forces are derived, and we analyse their dependence on the source velocity (or Froude number $Fr$) for different amounts of shear and different directions of motion. The effect of the shear current is to increase wave resistance for upstream ship motion and decrease it for downstream motion. Also the value of $Fr$ at which $R$ is maximal is lowered for upstream and increased for downstream directions of ship motion. For oblique angles between ship motion and current there is a lateral wave resistance component which can amount to 10–20 % of the normal wave resistance for side-on shear and $S\sqrt{b/g}$ of order unity. The theory is fully laid out and far-field contributions are carefully separated off by means of Cauchy’s integral theorem, exposing potential pitfalls associated with a slightly different method (Sokhotsky–Plemelj) used in several previous works.