THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF WAVE ENHANCEMENT AND RUNUP ON UNIFORMALY SLOPING IMPERMEABLE BEACHES.
Abstract
The shoaling enhancement of small-amplitude, dispersive wave trains traveling over uniform, impermeable slopes was observed in a specially-constructed wave channel, where the reproducible wave elevation measurement accuracy was about .0005-in. These observations substantially support the enhancement predicted from linear theory (conservation of energy flux) except in very shallow water and on very steep slopes, where accelerative effects become important. On the hypothesis that small-amplitude runup theory might be similarly valid for periodic waves of finite height, provided that the positive incident wave amplitude is replaced by the local crest height above still water, this theory was modified to include the effect of the superelevation under a wave crest due to profile asymmetry. The modified theory is shown to agree acceptably with runup observations of larger waves previously reported-both for breaking and non-breaking waves. Because solutions to the modified theory cannot conveniently be obtained by manual calculation, a nomograph chart is included, from which runup predictions can be easily made, given only the wave height, period, and water depth a wave-length or so from shore, and the beach slope. Use of this nomograph for non-uniform slopes, oblique incidence, and non-periodic waves is also discussed. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 31, 1966
- Accession Number
- AD0636225
Entities
People
- Wm. G. Van Dorn
Organizations
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography