CEE 473 (Thomson): Lecture Notes, Week 3

Surf zone wave breaking

Surf similarity: 0 = tan( ) Breaker types: spilling, 0 < 0.5, steep waves, at beach plunging, 0.5 < 0 < 3.3, steep waves, steep beach collapsing and surging, 0 > 3.3, at waves, steep beach Breaker depth: b =
Hb db H0 L0
1 2

d x

H0 L0

1 2

(= 0.8 for solitary KdV waves)... constant shoreward of break (saturated)

Hb db H0 L0

Shallow limit of more general Miche criterion H < 0.14L tanh(kd) Can adjust for beach slope b = Breaker height: b = Dissipation:
dEcg dx Hb H0

= const +
1 5

kd

(= 0.56

from Komar and Gaughan, assuming 0 1)

2 Battjes and Janssen [1978] predict = 1 4 gQb fp H

Nonlinearity: harmonics, steepness

Infragravity waves
Low frequency waves, 30 < T < 200 s: nonlinear, resonant in shallow water Types: bound, leaky, edge Control morphology (e.g., beach cusps) and runup

Setup
Increase in water elevation d = h + , where h is depth for still water and is the wave-averaged adjustment. The slope of setup or set down balances gradients of wave momentum ux: Radiation stress: Sxx = E
2kd sinh 2kd d dx 1 dSxx = gd dx 3 2 16 gH

1 2

Oshore (up to) break point, set-down: =

2 1 H 2/L 8 sinh(4d/L)

kd Syy = E sinh 2kd

shallow limit: Sxx =

d dx

=3 2E tan

Onshore of break point (saturated surf zone with linear decrease in H ), set-up: At the shoreline (still water level): s = b +
1 1+ 82
3 b

1 1+ 82
3 b

hb

Runup & Swash

Breaking waves, R/H0 = 0 for 0.1 < 0 < 2.3 Non-breaking waves, R/H0 = (2 )1/2 (/2 )1/4
0.77 Irregular waves, Rmax /H0 = 2.310

CEE 473 (Thomson): Lecture Notes, Week 3

Nearshore currents
Depth-averaged momentum balance: U U x + V Continuity:
U y = g x + Fbx + Lx + Rbx + Rsx , (U d) x

U V x + V

V y

= g y + Fby + Ly + Rby + Rsy

(V d) y

=0 Sxy =
1 cg 2 8 c gH

Longshore current, analytic solution [Longuet-Higgins, 1970]: V (x) =

1 Derived from Rby = d Sxy x ,

5 tan 16 Cf b gd sin cos

sin cos , with optional lateral mixing gHrms,b sin b cos b

where tan =

tan 2 /8 1+3b

to include the eects of set up and Cf 0.005

Longshore current, empirical solution [Komar & Inman, 1970]: V (x = midsurfzone) = 1.17
gd u 16 c Hs 2 d

Cross-shore currents: undertow is the mild/diusive return ow from wave transport and setup, cos [Lentz et al, 2008]
y

Cross-shore currents: rip currents are the intense/narrow jets caused by variations in setup, carry sediment oshore, carve out channels and/or indentations in the coast... possible mechanism for beach cusps typically max inside surf zone, but extend oshore few multiples of the surf-zone width feeder currents narrow jet oshore head unsteady, unstable

strength is function of wave energy and water depth, control ratios are H/d and dc h/db ar