Measuring run-up on a natural beach

Field experiments have been performed to evaluate and intercompare two techniques for measuring run-up on natural beaches, resistance wires and films. Simultaneous deployment of wire sensors shows a low error (< 5%) in electronics gain, but a strong sensitivity to the elevation of the wires above the beach face. On a low slope (β ～ 0.02) beach, with incident wind waves of moderate height (H ～ 1 m), differences of only a few cm in the wire elevation cause variance differences as large as 25%, in otherwise identical sensors. Replicate digitizations of the same run-up film show variance differences as large as 20%, with an average deviation from the mean variance of 8%.Use of the film and resistance wire sensors on the same run-up field showed small differences in the mean swash elevation (i.e., set-up), but an 83% difference in swash variance. Much further work is needed to determine the dependence of sensor differences on beach slope, porosity, camera elevation and other factors.     

Extreme value statistics for wave run-up on a natural beach

Statistics of wave run-up maxima have been calculated for 149 35-minutes data runs from a natural beach. During the experiment incident wave height varied from 0.4 to 4.0 m, incident wave period from 6 to 16 s, and beach face slope from 0.07 to 0.20. Four extreme statistics were calculated; the maximum run-up height during each run, the 2% exceedence level of shoreline elevation, the 2% exceedence height for individual run-up peaks, and the 2% exceedence level for swash height as determined by the zero-upcrossing method. These statistics were best parameterized when normalized by the incident significant wave height and plotted against the Iribarren number, ξ = β/(H/L₀)^1/2. The swash data (with set-up removed) showed less scatter than total run-up (with set-up included). For Iribarren number greater than 1.5 the run-up was dominated by the incident frequencies, for lower Iribarren number longer period motions dominated the swash. A reasonable value of wave steepness for a fully developed storm sea is 0.025 so that a storm Iribarren number can be estimated as 6.3 times the beach slope. Using this and an offshore design wave height, the included graphs may provide guidance in determining a design run-up height.     

Numerical modelling of short- and long-wave transformation on a barred beach

This work aims to demonstrate an advancement towards the integrated modelling of surf zone hydrodynamics by means of a VOF-type numerical model (COBRAS-UC) based on the Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes equations. In this paper, the numerical model is adapted and validated for the study of nearshore processes on a mildly-sloping beach. The model prediction of wave energy transformation and higher order statistics (skewness and asymmetry) are in good agreement with detailed laboratory observations from a barred beach [Boers, M. (1996). “Simulation of a surf zone with a barred beach; Report 1: Wave heights and wave breaking”. Tech. Rep.96-5, Comm. on Hydrol. and Geol. Eng., Dept. of Civil Engineering, Delft University of Technology]. Moreover, the numerical model allows us to study the low-frequency motions inside the surf zone. It is found that in order to achieve a satisfactory simulation of both short- and long-wave transformation, the numerical model must achieve: (i) the simultaneous second-order wave generation and absorption, (ii) the energy transfer between triad of components, (iii) the short- and long-wave energy dissipation inside the surf zone, and (iv) the wave reflection at the shoreline. Comparisons between numerical and experimental results demonstrate the model capability to satisfactorily simulate all the aforementioned processes.     

On the evolution and run-up of breaking solitary waves on a mild sloping beach

This paper presents new laboratory experiments carried out in a supertank (300 m × 5 m × 5.2 m) of breaking solitary waves evolution on a 1:60 plane beach. The measured data are employed to re-examine existing formulae that include breaking criterion, amplitude evolution and run-up height. The properties of shoreline motion, underwater particle velocity and scale effect on run-up height are briefly discussed. Based on our analyses, it is evidently found that there exist five zones during a wave amplitude evolution course on the present mild slope. A simple formula which is capable of predicting maximum run-up height for a breaking solitary wave on a uniform beach with a wide range of beach slope (1:15–1:60) is also proposed. The calculated results from the present model agree favorably with available laboratory data, indicating that our method is compatible with other predictive models.     

Spectral characteristics of random wave run-up

The time series of shoreline variations (run-up variations) due to random waves have been measured on uniform sloping beaches with slopes ranging from $\text{1}\text{5}$ to $\text{1}\text{30}$ and the energy spectra of the variations (run-up spectra) have been examined. The main characteristics of run-up spectra obtained from the experimental results are as follows: (1) a phenomenon of energy saturation is seen in a high frequency region; and (2) the spectral energy densities are independent of offshore incident wave energy. In the saturation region, the run-up spectra show f⁻⁴ dependence and tan ⁴θ dependence (f: frequency, tanθ: beach slope). Only in a low frequency region, the energy densities increase with increasing incident wave energy. In addition to the experimental study, it is shown by numerical simulations that if run-up variations are formed by parabolas induced by bores running up and down on the beach surface, the spectra of the variations show f⁻⁴ dependence, and the low frequency run-up energy densities increase with increasing running-up velocities of bores.     

Statistical simulation of wave climate and extreme beach erosion

Recent developments in extreme values modelling have been used to develop a framework for determining the coastal erosion hazard on sandy coastlines. This framework quantitatively reproduced the extreme beach erosion volumes obtained from field measurements at Narrabeen Beach, Australia. This encouraging finding was achieved using Kriebel and Dean's [Kriebel, D.L. and Dean, R.G., 1993. Convolution method for time-dependent beach profile response. Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal and Ocean Engineering, 119(2): 204–226.] simple beach erosion and accretion model. The method includes allowances for joint probability between all basic erosion variates including; wave height, period and direction, event duration, tidal anomalies and event spacing. A new formulation for the dependency between wave height and period has been developed. It includes the physical wave steepness limitation. Event grouping, where significantly more erosion can occur from two closely spaced storms is handled by temporally simulating the synthetic wave climate and the resulting beach erosion and accretion.     

Wave run-up on a coaxial perforated circular cylinder

This paper describes a plane regular wave interaction with a combined cylinder which consists of a solid inner column and a coaxial perforated outer cylinder.The outer perforated surface is a thin porous cylinder with an annular gap between it and the inner cylinder.The non-linear boundary condition at the perforated wall is a prime focus in the study;energy dissipation at the perforated wall occurs through the resistance to the fluid across the perforated wall.Explicit analytical formulae are presented to calculate the wave run-up on the outer and inner surfaces of the perforated cylinder and the surface of the inner column.The theoretical results of the wave run-up are compared with previous experimental data.Numerical results have also been obtained:when the ratio of the annular gap between the two cylinders to incident wavelength(b-a)/L≤0.1,the wave run-up on the inner surface of the perforated cylinder and the surface of inner column can partially or completely exceed the incident wave height.     

Reconstructing tsunami run-up from the characteristics of tsunami deposits on the Thai Andaman Coast

Tsunamis can leave deposits on the land surface they inundate. The characteristics of tsunami deposits can be used to calculate tsunami run-up height and velocity. This paper presents a reconstruction of tsunami run-up from tsunami deposit characteristics in a simple mathematical model. The model is modified and applied to reconstruct tsunami run-ups at Ao Kheuy beach and Khuk Khak beach, Phangnga province, Thailand. The input parameters are grain-size and maximum run-up distance of the sediment. The reconstructed run-up heights are 4.16–4.91 m at Ao Kheuy beach and 5.43–9.46 m at Khuk Khak beach. The estimated run-up velocities (maximum velocity) at the still water level are 12.78–19.21 m/s. In the area located 70–140 m inland to the end of run-up inundation, estimated mean run-up velocities decrease from approximately 1.93 m/s to 0 m/s. Reasonably good agreements are found between reconstructed and observed run-up heights. The tsunami run-up height and velocity can be used for risk assessment and coastal development programs in the tsunami affected area. The results show that the area from 0 to 140 m inland was flooded by high velocity run-ups and those run-up energies were dissipated mainly in this area. The area should be designated as either an area where settlement is not permitted or an area where effective protection is provided, for example with flood barriers or forest.     

Extreme wave run-up and pressure on a vertical seawall

The performance of coastal vertical seawalls in extreme weather events is studied numerically, aiming to provide guidance in designing and reassessing coastal structures with vertical wall. The extreme wave run-up and the pressure on the vertical seawall are investigated extensively. A time-domain higher-order boundary element method (HOBEM) is coupled with a mixed Eulerian-Lagrangian technique as a time marching technique. Focused wave groups are generated by a piston wave-maker in the numerical wave tank using a wave focusing technique for accurately reproducing extreme sea states. An acceleration-potential scheme is used to calculate the transient wave loads. Comparisons with experimental data show that the extended numerical model is able to accurately predict extreme wave run-ups and pressures on a vertical seawall. The effects of the wave spectrum bandwidth, the wall position and the wave nonlinearity on the wave run-up and the maximum wave load on the vertical seawall are investigated by doing parametric studies.     

An experimental study on geometric characteristics of beach erosion profiles

The beach profile and sediment transport are very important factors in the design of coastal structures, and the beach profile is mainly affected by a number of parameters, such as wave height and period, beach slope, and the material properties of the bed. In this study, considering wave height (H₀=6.5, 11.5, 16, 20, 23, 26 and 30 cm), wave period (T=1.46 and 2.03 s), beach slope (m=1/10 and 1/15) and mean sediment diameter (d₅₀=0.18, 0.26, 0.33 and 0.40 mm), an experimental investigation of coastal erosion profile (storm profile) was carried out in a wave flume using regular waves, and geometric characteristics of erosion profile were determined by the resultant erosion profile. Dimensional and non-dimensional equations were obtained by using linear and non-linear regression methods through the experimental data and were compared with previously developed equations in the literature. The results have shown that the experimental data fitted well to the proposed equations with respect to the previously developed equations.     

海南岛西南部砂质岸滩沉积特征

对海南岛西南部龙沐湾70个海滩表层沉积样品与12个近岸水下沉积样品进行粒度分析,结果表明,龙沐湾海滩沉积物以砂为主,平均粒径大都在0～2φ,为粗、中砂.近岸海底沉积物总体分布较细,平均粒径大都在2～6φ,为砂-粉砂-黏土的组合.沉积物粒径呈现由岸向海逐渐变细以及沿岸线南粗北细的趋势,反映了波浪的横向分选作用,以及南来沿...     

The effects of beach replenishment on the benthos of a sub-tropical Florida beach

Changes in the benthic fauna of the near-shore zone were examined before and after a beach replenishment project on the central Florida east coast. Results indicated that the near-shore sand beach community is relatively species rich, although abundance is dominated by only two species of bivalves, the coquina clams Donax variabilis and Donax parvula. Strong gradients of increased species richness and abundance were found, with values increasing at the more seaward sites for both control and nourishment locations. This distributional pattern was unchanged by beach nourishment. Comparison of mean number of individuals per core across dates and among transects (two-way analysis of variance) showed no indication of significant negative effects of beach nourishment. Similar analysis for mean number of species per core also failed to show significant negative effects. Negative biological effects of beach nourishment may have been minimized in the present case due to a seasonal offshore movement of the dominant coquina clams. The close match of mean fill grain size to ambient grain size and an apparent lack of substantial fill movement into the biologically more diverse offshore areas may also have diminished biological damage.     

Statistical relations of the run-up height of Tsunami waves to the distance and energy of the source

A statistical analysis of the relation between the run-up height of historical tsunami events and the distance and magnitude of the source was performed on the basis of the known Historical Tsunami Data Base [5]. The sample from the database used for the analysis comprises 5638 run-ups caused by 628 seismic events. This analysis, together with the dimensionality theory, shows that the statistical average of the run-up height is inversely proportional to the distance from the source to a power close to 1/2 (that is characteristic of the cylindrically symmetrical case) and directly proportional to the 3/8 power of the earthquake energy.     

A numerical study of nonlinear wave run-up on a vertical plate

A finite difference model based on a recently derived highly-accurate Boussinesq-type formulation is presented. Up to the third-order space derivatives in terms of the velocity variables are retained, and the horizontal velocity variables are re-formulated in terms of a velocity potential. This decreases the total number of unknowns in two horizontal dimensions from seven to five, simplifying the implementation, and leading to increased computational efficiency. Analysis of the embedded properties demonstrates that the resulting model has applications with errors of 2 to 3% for (wavenumber times depth) kh ≤ 10 in terms of dispersion and kh ≤ 4 in terms of internal kinematics. The stability and accuracy of the discrete linearised systems are also analysed for both potential and velocity formulations and the advantages and disadvantages of each are discussed. The velocity potential model is then used to study physically demanding problems involving highly nonlinear wave run-up on a bottom-mounted (surface-piercing) plate. New cases involving oblique incidence are considered. In all cases, comparisons with recent physical experiments demonstrate good quantitative accuracy, even in the most demanding cases, where the local wave steepness can exceed (waveheight divided by wavelength) H / L = 0.20. The velocity potential model is additionally shown to have numerical advantages when dealing with wave–structure interactions, requiring less smoothing around exterior structural corners.     

Wave run-up on bermed coastal structures

Reliable estimation of wave run-up is required for the effective and efficient design of coastal structures when flooding or wave overtopping volumes are an important consideration in the design process. In this study, a unified formula for the wave run-up on bermed structures has been developed using collected and existing data. As data on berm breakwaters was highly limited, physical model tests were conducted and the run-up was measured. Conventional governing parameters and influencing factors were then used to predict the dimensionless run-up level with 2% exceedance probability. The developed formula includes the effect of water depth which is required in understanding the influence of sea level rise and consequent changes of wave height to water depth ratio on the future hydraulic performance of the structures. The accuracy measures such as RMSE and Bias indicated that the developed formula is more accurate than the existing formulas. Additionally, the new formula was validated using field measurements and its superiority was observed when compared to the existing prediction formulas. Finally, the new design formula incorporating the partial safety factor was introduced as a design tool for engineers.     

Coastal forest effects on tsunami run-up heights

An experimental study was carried out to determine the effects of a coastal forest on tsunami run-up heights. The beach was built as a natural sandy beach at laboratory scale. The coastal forest model was constructed using artificial trees (FM–I) and cylindrical timber sticks (FM–II). Artificial trees were placed on a 1:5 slope in three different layouts: rectilinear, staggered, and dense rectilinear. It was shown that in the case when the trees were placed in the dense rectilinear pattern and close to the still water level (SWL), the run-up height was reduced by approximately 45% compared with the case without trees. After evaluation of the experimental results, the parameters that affect the run-up height were determined. These parameters were written as a dimensionless group using Buckingham's Pi theorem. An extensive regression analysis was carried out and equations proposed. Furthermore, all experiments were repeated with a slope of 1:3.5 to verify the proposed equations. The experimental results were compared with the results of the proposed equations, and it was shown a good agreement between the results.     

畸形波作用下半潜式平台波浪爬升与气隙响应特性

半潜平台的波浪爬升与气隙响应是设计过程中的重要考量因素。为探究随机波浪场中畸形波对半潜平台波浪爬升及气隙响应的影响,将含畸形波的随机波浪试验与一般随机波浪试验结果进行了对比研究分析。对模型试验测得的运动以及监测点处的波浪爬升及气隙进行频谱分析以及极值统计分析。研究发现,纵荡和纵摇的极大值主要受畸形波的影响而显著增大,纵荡、垂荡以及纵摇响应谱几乎不受单个畸形波影响;波浪爬升与气隙的极大值受到畸形波的影响而增大,同时,畸形波对气隙响应谱造成极大影响,增强了波浪爬升与气隙响应的非线性性。     

Wave run-up on a fixed surface-piercing square column using multi-layer barrier

Steep or breaking waves may produce critical run-ups on a surface-piercing column, as represented by an unexpectedly high uprush, which has the potential of generating damaging localised wave-in-deck loads. Hence, to improve the air gap performance of offshore column-stabilised platforms, this paper proposes the mounting of an innovative multi-layer barrier on the column surface at a certain distance below the lower deck. Experiments were performed using a truncated square column to examine the performances of different versions of the barrier, namely, solid-plate, porous-plate, and intermittent-plate types, under four different focused waves. All the barrier types were found to obstruct and deflect uprush flow under storm conditions. However, the solid-plate type tended to experience considerable wave forces, with its impermeability also rendering the higher layers ineffective. The intermittent-plate type dissipated the uprush flow and decreased the wave impact, although it exhibited relatively strong flow disengaging, which decreased the efficiency under large wave run-ups. Conversely, the porous-plate type exhibited adequate performance, with a larger plate porosity and moderately high mounting elevation tending to improve the uprush obstruction performance and further decrease the wave slamming loads. A barrier with an appropriately designed plate porosity, number of layers, and mount elevation is expected to perform efficiently under severe sea states, providing protection for the lower deck against extreme wave run-ups.     

Numerical study on cnoidal wave run-up around a vertical circular cylinder

A finite element model of Boussinesq-type equations was set up, and a direct numerical method is proposed so that the full reflection boundary condition is exactly satisfied at a curved wall surface. The accuracy of the model was verified in tests. The present model was used to further examine cnoidal wave propagation and run-up around the cylinder. The results showed that the Ursell number is a nonlinear parameter that indicates the normalized profile of cnoidal waves and has a significant effect on the wave run-up. Cnoidal waves with the same Ursell number have the same normalized profile, but a difference in the relative wave height can still cause differences in the wave run-up between these waves. The maximum dimensionless run-up was predicted under various conditions. Cnoidal waves hold entirely distinct properties from Stokes waves under the influence of the water depth, and the nonlinearity of cnoidal waves enhances rather than weakens with increasing wavelength. Thus, the variations in the maximum run-up with the wavelength for cnoidal waves are completely different from those for Stokes waves, and there are even significant differences in the variation between different cnoidal waves.     

Analysis of the dynamic characteristics and stochastic simulation on variations of beach volumes

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