Wave Shoaling on Steep Slopes and Breaking Criteria

Ching-Piao Tsai, Hong-Bin Chen and Ming-Jen Huang

Department of Civil Engineering, National Chung-Hsing University
Taichung 402, Taiwan, China









ABSTRACT

Estimation of the transformation of wave shoaling and breaking is
essential for the nearshore hydrodynamics and the design of coastal
structures. Many empirical formulas have been well recognized to the
wave transformation on gently sloping beaches. This paper reports the
applicability of previous formulas of wave shoaling and breaking
indices for the situation of steep slopes based on comparing with the
present experimental results. Two steep bottom slopes of 1/3 and 1/5,
and one gently slope of 1/10 were conducted in the present experiments.
It was found that the shoaling distance on steep slope becomes short,
and the surface waves may be partially reflected from the steep bottom.
The coefficient of wave reflection is well related to the surf similarity
parameter. The estimations of wave shoaling based on the well-known
formula by Shuto (1974) did not conform completely to the
experimental results for steep slopes. The empirical formula for the
breaking criteria proposed in Goda (1975) was slightly modified in this
paper for applying to the steep beaches. A time-dependent mild-slope
equation model finally was adopted to calculate the wave height
transformation in the surf zone by introducing the modified breaking
index.

KEY WORDS: Wave shoaling; breaking index; wave reflection;
time-dependent mild-slope equation.

INTRODUCTION

Wave breaking is one of the most interesting phenomena of the wave
transformation in the nearshore region. It is not only produces a large
force on coastal structures, but also induces nearshore current
circulation that affects bottom topography. Therefore, the prediction of
wave breaking is an important theme for nearshore hydrodynamics, as
well as for the design of coastal structures. Many theories and empirical
formulas, including the calculation of wave shoaling and the prediction
of breaking criteria, have been proposed in the literature.

Priori to wave breaking, the energy flux method employing linear or
nonlinear wave theory was presented to predict the wave height
transformation under the shoaling process (Le Mhaut and Webb,
1964; Svendsen and Brink-Kjaer, 1972; Stiassnie and Peregrine, 1980).
Using a perturbation method, Shuto (1974) presented an approximate
formula for wave height change of shoaling, on the basis of the K-dV
equation. Shutos results have been found to agree reasonably with
experimental data for a wide range of wave steepness. Thus they are
often used for practical application (Horikawa, 1988). Recently,
numerical models based on the mild slope equation have also been
proposed to compute the nearshore wave transformation (Watanabe and
Dibajnia, 1988; Tsai et al., 2001).

The shoaling waves will break when their height reaches a certain limit.
The criteria of waves at breaking in terms of breaking height and
breaking depth have been analyzed by many investigators, such as in
McCown (1894), Miche (1951), Weggel (1972), Goda (1975),
Svendsen and Hansen (1976), Van Dorn (1978), Peregrine (1983) and
Svendsen (1987) etc.. There were many works expressing the breaking
wave height in terms of a given deepwater wave condition, as in
LeMhaut and Koh (1967), Komar and Gaughan (1973) and
Sunamura (1983) etc..

Most of works, however, were investigated for the wave transformation
on gently sloping beaches. For the situation of east coast in Taiwan,
where the bottom slope is very slope to 1/5, even to 1/3. Because of the
distance of wave shoaling on a steep bottom becomes shorter than on a
gently slope, that the shoaling waves may result in breaking early.
Besides, the surface wave may be partially reflected from the steep
slope. Thus those previous empirical formulas for wave shoaling and
the wave breaking criteria should be examined for the situation of steep
beaches. In this paper, the previous formulas for the estimation of
coefficient of wave reflection, wave transformation of shoaling, and the
breaking index are compared with the present experimental results.
Then, a mild-slope equation model proposed by Tsai et al. (2001) is
adopted to calculate the wave height transformation by introducing a
modified breaking index.

EXPERIMENTS

The experiment was conducted in a two-dimensional wave channel that
was 100 m long, 2 m wide and 2 m high. The sidewalls at the
observation sections of the channel were consisted of strengthened
glass plates. A piston-type wave generator system, controlled by a D/A
617
Proceedings of The Twelfth (2002) International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference
Kitakyushu, Japan, May 2631, 2002
Copyright 2002 by The International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers
ISBN 1-880653-58-3 (Set); ISSN 1098-6189 (Set)
converter and a personal computer, was mounted at the end of the
channel. Only regular waves were considered in the experiments. The
sketch of the experimental setup is shown in Fig. 1, in which the model
of a slope beach was installed at the other end of the channel. The
bottom slope followed by a horizontal section was made in the
experiments, which is similar to Horikawa and Kuo (1966).

The experimental wave conditions were varied from 1.0 sec to 2.5 sec
periods corresponding with many different wave heights ranged from
0.057 m to 0.33 m, from which the steepness of incident waves in deep
water (H
o
/L
o
) ranged from 0.005 to 0.08. For forcing the incident waves
just breaking at the end of the sloping part and in front of the horizontal
region, the water depth (h) is adjusted by ranging from 0.86 m to 1.10
m. A series of capacitance-type wave gauges were used to measure the
wave profiles. An A-D converter at a sampling frequency of 20Hz
digitized all records.



Fig. 1 Sketch of Experimental Setup

RESULTS AND COMPARISONS

Wave Reflection Coefficient

For the wave reflection from a sloping beach, Battjes (1974) obtained
an empirical formula for estimating the reflection coefficient as

2
1 . 0 =
r
K (1)

in which is referred as the surf similarity parameter and defined as

o o
L H / / tan = (2)

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
0.0
0.3
0.6
0.9
1.2

K
r
Battjes (1974)
Slope = 1/10
Slope = 1/3
Slope = 1/5


Fig. 2 Comparisons of the wave reflection coefficients
where tan is the bottom slope, and H
o
and L
o
are the wave height and
length in deep water, respectively.

As shown in Fig. 2, the experimental results of the wave reflection
coefficients are in good agreement with the relationship indicated in Eq.
1. It is shown that the value of reflection coefficient for the bottom
slope of 1/3 in the present experiments could reach to 0.5 about. It is
noted that the analysis of the reflection coefficients of the experimental
data was based on the method proposed in Goda and Suzuki (1976).

Comparisons of Wave Shoaling

Shuto (1974) has proposed a set of approximate formulas for wave
shoaling on a sloping beach based on the K-dV equation, shown as

=
=
=
r r
r
r
o
U const U Hh
U Hh
U
kh n H
H
50 for . ) 3 2 (
50 30 for const.
30 for
tanh
1
2
1
2 / 5
7 / 2
(3)

which has often been used for practical applications (Horikawa, 1988).
In Eq. 3, U
r
= gHT
2
/h
2
is the local Ursell parameter defined in Shuto
(1974), H is the wave height, T is the wave period, k is the local wave
number, h the local water depth and n is defined as

|
.
|

\
|
+ =
kh
kh
n
2 sinh
2
1
2
1
(4)

Noted that Eq. 3 implies energy flux is not a single-value function of
the wave height and the shoaling coefficient calculated from these
relationships is identical to the small amplitude wave theory when
30
r
U .

The approximately sound relationships are adopted for comparing with
the present experimental data. For the slope of 1/10, it is shown in Fig.
3 that the calculated results are well in agreement with the experiments.
However, for the steep slopes of 1/5 and 1/3 shown in Figs. 4 and 5, the
calculated results did not conform completely to the experimental
results. The discrepancy especially occurs in the region of the smaller
values of h/L
o
or larger values of U
r
. It may be resulted from the reason
that the shoaling distance on steep slope becomes shorter than that of
gently slope. Noted that (H/L)
max
= 0.142 tanh kh was used as the
breaking criteria shown in these figures. The experimental results
depicted that the breaking wave heights were much smaller than the
estimations, for the steep beaches of 1/5 and 1/3.

Comparisons of Breaking Wave Indices

There were many criteria presented in the literature to predict the wave
breaking. Goda (1970, 1975) expressed the breaking criteria graphically
and then presented an approximate expression for the curves given
using

)]} tan 1 ( 5 . 1 exp[ 1 {
3 / 4
B
L
h
A
L
H
o o
b
+ = (5)

in which H
b
is the height of the breaking wave, A and B are empirical
constants taken to be 0.17 and 15, respectively.
618

0.1 0.2 0.3
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
h/L
o
H/H
o
breaking criteria
Shuto (1974)
H
o
/L
o
=0.020
H
o
/L
o
=0.048
H
o
/L
o
=0.060
H
o
/L
o
=0.074
H
o
/L
o
=0.020
H
o
/L
o
=0.048
H
o
/L
o
=0.060
H
o
/L
o
=0.074
tan = 1/10


Fig. 3 Comparisons of the wave shoaling coefficients, tan = 1/10


10
-2
10
-1
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
h/L
o
H/H
o
H
o
/L
o
=0.010
H
o
/L
o
=0.005
H
o
/L
o
=0.020
H
o
/L
o
=0.040
H
o
/L
o
=0.080
breaking criteria
Shuto (1974)
H
o
/L
o
=0.005
H
o
/L
o
=0.010
H
o
/L
o
=0.020
H
o
/L
o
=0.040
H
o
/L
o
=0.080
tan = 1/5


Fig. 4 Comparisons of the wave shoaling coefficients, tan = 1/5


10
-2
10
-1
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
h/L
o
H/H
o
breaking criteria
Shuto (1974)
H
o
/L
o
=0.005
H
o
/L
o
=0.010
H
o
/L
o
=0.020
H
o
/L
o
=0.040
H
o
/L
o
=0.080
H
o
/L
o
=0.005
H
o
/L
o
=0.010
H
o
/L
o
=0.020
H
o
/L
o
=0.040
H
o
/L
o
=0.080
tan = 1/3


Fig.5 Comparisons of the wave shoaling coefficients, tan = 1/3
Good agreement is found in Fig. 6 upon comparison with the
estimations and the experimental results for the slopes of 1/10 and 1/5.
However, the estimations are much higher than the experimental data
for the very steep slope of 1/3 shown in Fig. 7. The discrepancy might
be due to the short shoaling distance, which forcing wave breaking
early. It could be suggested for this case that the empirical constants A
and B are taken as 0.16 and 7 in Eq. 5, respectively, fitting in the
experimental data.

The other breaking criterion was expressed by the ratio of breaking
wave height to the water depth. The earliest formula was proposed in
McCowan (1894) given using (H/h)
b
= 0.78, as the bottom is horizontal,
in which the subscript b denotes the value at breaking. Svendsen (1987)
presented the breaking criterion versus the beach slope and local
relative water depth, given using

20 . 0
05 . 1 S
b
= (6)

where
b
= (H/h)
b
and S = tan /(h/L)
b
. Svendsen (1987) interpreted this
approximation is reasonable to the data for 0.25 < S < 1. As introducing
the laboratory results of the steep slopes shown in Fig. 8, it shows that
Eq. 5 could be extended for larger values of S, though the experimental
data have slightly scattering from the regression line.

0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10 0.12
0.00
0.04
0.08
0.12
0.16
h
b
/ L
o
H
b
/ L
o
Goda (1975), tan = 1/5
Measured
Goda (1975), tan = 1/10
Measured

Fig. 6 Comparisons of the wave breaking criterion, tan = 1/10, 1/5

0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10 0.12
0.00
0.04
0.08
0.12
0.16
h
b
/ L
o
H
b
/ L
o
Goda (1975), tan = 1/3
measured
H
b
/L
o
= 0.16 {1-exp[-1.5h
b
/L
o
(1+7 tan
4/3
)]}
modified formula, tan = 1/3


Fig. 7 Comparisons of the wave breaking criterion, tan = 1/3
619
10
-1
10
0
10
1
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
S

b
Van Dorn, Slope = 1/45
Van Dorn, Slope = 1/25
Svendsen (1987)
Van Dorn, Slope = 1/12
ISVA, Slope = 1/35
Measured, Slope = 1/5
Measured, Slope = 1/10

b
= 0.78
Measured, Slope = 1/3


Fig. 8 Comparisons of the wave breaking criterion

Calculations of Wave Height Transformation

Wave height transformation including the wave decay can be calculated
from the numerical model presented in Tsai et al. (2001). In the model,
the set of time-dependent mild-slope equation was incorporated an
approximate nonlinear shoaling corrector and an energy dissipation
factor. The accurate use of the breaking criterion is required in the
calculations, in which Eq. 5 was well adopted in Tsai et al. (2001).
Based on the calculations, the numerical results are found to agree
reasonable well with experimental data, as shown in Figs. 9-11. Noted
that the modified empirical constants A = 0.16 and B = 7 in Eq. 5 were
used for the solutions of the slope of 1/3 shown in Fig. 11. It was found
that the fluctuation of wave height transformation before wave breaking
appears in the numerical and experimental results, which is due to the
wave reflection from the bottom. Though the mild-slope equation
model is based on the assumption of mild slope bottom, the results
shows that the model is applicable for the calculated examples.

CONCLUSIONS

The wave transformation were presented in the literature, but most of
them were paid attention to waves propagating on the gently sloping
beaches. This paper reported the laboratory investigation for the two-
dimensional wave transformation on steep beaches involving the wave
shoaling and the breaking indices. The wave reflection from the bottom,
the approximate formula and the breaking indices were compared with
the experimental results. The wave reflection from the steep bottom has
been compared well with the relationship presented in Battjes (1974),
from which good agreement was found between the experiment data
and the empirical formula. The wave height transformation was
compared with the approximate formula proposed by Shuto (1974).
Owing to the shoaling distance of the steep slope is very short and the
wave breaking occur earlier, the estimations were found to deviate from
the experiments, in the region with larger Ursell number. For the slopes
of 1/10 and 1/5, the experimental results of the breaking criterion were
in good agreement with the empirical formula of Goda (1975). But the
estimated breaking height was much higher than the experimental data
for the steep slope of 1/3, from which the empirical constants of Godas
formula was modified in the paper for this steep slope. Based on the
numerical model of Tsai et al. (2001), the calculated results of wave
height transformation across the surf zone was found to agree
reasonably with the experimental results.

-5 0 5 10 15 20 25
0.00
0.10
0.20
0.30
0.40
x(m)
H(m)
numerical solution
measured
T = 2.6 sec, H
o
= 0.213 m
h = 0.980 m, tan = 1/10


Fig. 9 Comparisons of the wave height transformation, tan = 1/10

-5 0 5 10 15 20
0.00
0.10
0.20
0.30
x(m)
H(m)
numerical solution
measured
T = 2.6 sec, H
o
= 0.106 m
h = 0.885 m, tan = 1/5


Fig. 10 Comparisons of the wave height transformation, tan = 1/5

-5 0 5 10 15 20
0.00
0.10
0.20
0.30
0.40
x(m)
H(m)
numerical solution
measured
T = 1.8 sec, H
o
= 0.202 m
h = 0.970 m, tan = 1/3


Fig. 11 Comparisons of the wave height transformation, tan = 1/3
620
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