Subharmonic edge wave excitation by narrow-band, random incident waves

2019 ◽  
Vol 868 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanna Vittori ◽  
Paolo Blondeaux ◽  
Giovanni Coco ◽  
R. T. Guza

A monochromatic, small amplitude, normally incident standing wave on a sloping beach is unstable to perturbation by subharmonic (half the frequency) edge waves. At equilibrium, edge wave shoreline amplitudes can exceed incident wave amplitudes. Here, the effect of incident wave randomness on subharmonic edge wave excitation is explored following a weakly nonlinear stability analysis under the assumption of narrow-band incident random waves. Edge waves respond to variations in both incident wave phase and amplitude, and the edge wave amplitudes and incident wave groups vary on similar time scales. When bottom friction is included, intermittent subharmonic edge wave excitation is predicted due to the combination of bottom friction and wave phase. Edge wave amplitude can be near zero for long times, but for short periods reaches relatively large values, similar to amplitudes with monochromatic incident waves and no friction.

1976 ◽  
Vol 1 (15) ◽  
pp. 85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael K. Gaughan ◽  
Paul D. Komar

A series of wave basin experiments were undertaken to better understand the selection of groin spacings and lengths. Rather than obtaining edge waves with the same period as the normal incident waves, subharmonic edge waves were produced with a period twice that of the incoming waves and a wave length equal to the groin spacing. Rip currents were therefore not formed by the interactions of the synchronous edge waves and normal waves as proposed by Bowen and Inman (1969). Rips were present in the wave basin but their origin is uncertain and they were never strong enough to cause beach erosion. The generation of strong subharmonic edge waves conforms with the work of Guza and Davis (1974) and Guza and Inman (1975). The subharmonic edge waves interacted with the incoming waves to give an alternating sequence of surging and collapsing breakers along the beach. Their effects on the swash were sufficient to erode the beach in some places and cause deposition in other places. Thus major rearrangements of the sand were produced between the groins, but significant erosion did not occur as had been anticipated when the study began. By progressively decreasing the length of the submerged portions of the groins, it was found that the strength (amplitude) of the edge waves decreases. A critical submerged groin length was determined whereby the normally incident wave field could not generate resonant subharmonic edge waves of mode zero with a wavelength equal to the groin spacing. The ratio of this critical length to the spacing of the groins was found in the experiments to be approximately 0.15 to 0.20, and did not vary with the steepness of the normal incident waves.


1978 ◽  
Vol 1 (16) ◽  
pp. 81 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.A. Huntley ◽  
A.J. Bowen

Beach cusps are very common, concave-seaward cuspate patterns at the shoreline of a beach, which tend to occur with a regular longshore spacing, but which can have a wide range of longshore wavelengths from a few centimeters to several kilometers or more. Edge waves, resonant waves trapped at the shoreline by refraction, have been suggested as the cause of beach cusps but it has proved difficult to establish a definitive link on natural beaches . This paper describes field measurements of nearshore velocities, in all three orthogonal directions, that show the presence of edge wave motion just before the formation of beach cusps of the corresponding wavelength, and thus provides convincing evidence that edge waves are responsible for beach cusps. The magnitude of the observed edge wave oscillatory and drift velocities are found to be large and apparently well able to form cusps of the observed size. The observed edge waves are at the subharmonic of the incident wave frequency and thus are the field equivalent of the laboratory observations of Guza and Inman (1975) and Guza and Bowen (1977). It is not clear, however, whether the developing cusp topography enhanced or suppressed the edge wave motion.


1984 ◽  
Vol 1 (19) ◽  
pp. 130
Author(s):  
Asbury H. Sallenger ◽  
Robert A. Holman

Flow data were obtained in the surf zone across a barred profile during a storm. RMS cross-shore velocities due to waves in the infragravity band (wave periods greater than 20 s) had maxima in excess of 0.5 m/s over the bar crest. For comparison to measured spectra, synthetic spectra of cross-shore flow were computed using measured nearshore profiles. The synthetic spectra were calculated assuming a white runup spectrum of mode-4 edge waves of unit amplitude, although the results would be essentially the same for standing waves or any edge-wave mode above 2. The structure, in the infragravity band, of these synthetic spectra corresponded reasonably well with the structure of the measured spectra. Total variances of measured cross-shore flow within the infragravity band were nondimensionalized by dividing by total infragravity variances of synthetic spectra. These nondimensional variances were independent of distance offshore and increased with the square of the breaker height. Thus, cross-shore flow due to infragravity waves can be estimated with knowledge of the nearshore profile and incident wave conditions.


1984 ◽  
Vol 1 (19) ◽  
pp. 59 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Huntley ◽  
Chang S. Kim

Although many field experiments have shown that surf beat motion, with periods longer than incident wave periods, becomes the dominant feature of the nearshore velocity field as the shoreline is approached, the nature of this motion is still not fully understood. This paper describes a field experiment on a sheltered beach which was designed to distinguish between long wave motion directly forced by the incident wave envelope (as suggested by Longuet-Higgins and Stewart, 1962), and wave motion which is only weakly coupled to the local incident waves and therefore essentially free. The results for on/offshore flows show that low frequency surf beat (frequency less than 0.03 Hz) is strongly correlated with the wave envelope, suggesting the dominance of forced wave motion at these frequencies. In a higher frequency band, between 0.06 and 0.095 Hz, the correlation is generally much lower, suggesting that free wave motion, possibly subharmonic edge waves, is significant in this band. The longshore flows are much more weakly correlated to the envelope of either the longshore or on/offshore components of the orbital velocity. This is consistent with previous observations that edge wave motion dominates the longshore surf beat motion.


1986 ◽  
Vol 30 (03) ◽  
pp. 147-152
Author(s):  
Yong Kwun Chung

When the wavelength of the incident wave is short, the total surface potential on a floating body is found to be 2∅ i & O (m-l∅ i) on the lit surface and O (m-l∅ j) on the shadow surface where ~b i is the potential of the incident wave and m the wave number in water of finite depth. The present approximation for wave exciting forces and moments is reasonably good up to X/L ∅ 1 where h is the wavelength and L the characteristic length of the body.


1978 ◽  
Vol 1 (16) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Robert King ◽  
Ronald Smith

Weak nonlinear interactions in water of non-constant depth between an incident wave, a side-band incident wave and a relatively low frequency trapped wave are shown to lead to the generation of the trapped wave. Three situations are considered in detail: edge waves in a wide rectangular basin, progressive edge waves on a straight beach, and standing waves in a narrow wave tank.


2020 ◽  
Vol 78 (4) ◽  
pp. 229-261
Author(s):  
Robert O. Reid

Essentially two classes of free edge waves can exist on a sloping continental shelf in the presence of Coriolis force. For small longshore wave length, fundamental waves of the first class behave like Stokes edge waves. However, for great wave lengths (of several hundred kilometers or more) the characteristics of the first class are significantly altered. In the northern hemisphere the phase speed for waves moving to the right (facing shore from the sea) exceeds the speed for waves which move to the left. Also, the group velocity for a given edge wave mode has a finite upper limit. Waves of the second class are essentially quasigeostrophic boundary waves with very low frequency and, like Kelvin waves, move only to the left (again facing shore from the sea). Unlike Stokes edge waves, those of the quasigeostrophic class are associated with large vorticity. Examination of the formal solution for forced edge waves indicates that those of the second class may be excited significantly by a wind stress vortex. Also, in contrast to the conclusion of Greenspan (1956), it is proposed that a hurricane can effectively excite the higher order edge wave modes in addition to the fundamental if wind stress is considered.


1986 ◽  
Vol 1 (20) ◽  
pp. 169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clifford L. Truitt ◽  
John B. Herbich

Several previous investigators have conducted experiments leading to expressions for predicting the transformation of waves passing through closely-spaced pile breakwaters. The present study extends those earlier experiments using monochromatic waves to the case of a spectrum of random waves. Records of incident waves and of waves after transmission through a model pile breakwater were compared to determine a coefficient of transmission. Results are presented for several cases of pile spacing and pile diameter. Good agreement is found between observed transmission coefficients and those predicted using the expression proposed by Hayashi et al. (1966).


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