Probability Density Functions of Breaking Waves.
Abstract
Waves in the surf zone are a highly nonlinear process which is evident by the appearance of secondary waves. The secondary waves appear as strong peaks in the period PDFs corresponding to the first harmonic of the peak of the wave spectrum. The strong first harmonic period peak is also reflected in the highly correlated height and velocity PDFs. Breaking waves may be viewed as a gradation between two extremes. The period, height and velocity PDFs for spilling breakers generally were unimodal, whereas for plunging breakers strong bimodality was found. The joint probability density functions for periods and heights of the breaking waves show high correlation (0.60-0.80) which says that greater wave periods are associated with larger breaker heights. The joint PDFs of period and particle velocity, and velocity height, suggest that the maximum onshore particle velocities are correlated with both the wave periods and wave heights. Due to the high probability of the secondary waves, the mean wave period for breakers is a poor descriptor of the average period of the offshore incident waves. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1978
- Accession Number
- ADA059693
Entities
People
- George Schaeffer Iii
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School