Numerical modelling of erosion and accretion of plane sloping beaches at different scales

The paper focuses on the numerical simulation of erosion of plane sloping beaches by irregular wave attack in three wave flumes of different scales. One of the prime objectives of the tests was to provide a consistent data set for the improvement of numerical beach profile models. A practical application of this research with wave attack on plane sloping beaches is the erosion of the plane beaches after nourishment. Three models (CROSMOR, UNIBEST-TC and DELFT3D) have been used to simulate the flume experimental results focusing on the wave height distribution and the morphological development (erosion and deposition) along the beach profiles. Overall, the model predictions for wave heights show consistent results. Generally, the computed wave heights (H_rms and H_1/3) are within 10% to 15% of the measured values for all tests (under-prediction of the largest wave heights close to the shore). The three models can simulate the beach erosion of the wave flume tests (erosive tests) reasonably well using default values of the sand transport parameters. The model performance for the accretive tests is less good than that for the erosive tests. A practical field application of this research is the erosion of nourished beaches, as these beaches generally have rather plane beach slopes immediately after nourishment. Various graphs are given to estimate the beach erosion of nourished beaches.