scholarly journals KINEMATICS OF BREAKING WAVES IN COASTAL REGIONS

1988 ◽  
Vol 1 (21) ◽  
pp. 65
Author(s):  
William J. Easson ◽  
Matthew W.P. Griffiths ◽  
Clive A. Greated

Waves breaking on various slopes in a wave flume are examined. Plunging and spilling breakers are considered. The parametric results show the consistency of the measurement and the independence of scale. A method is given for predicting the maximum breaking height for a wave of known period in a known depth. The velocity is measured to the crest of the wave and comparisions with numerical and analytical solutions demonstrate the shortcomings of many of the established methods of predicting wave kinematics.

Author(s):  
Bülent Düz ◽  
Rene Lindeboom ◽  
Jule Scharnke ◽  
Joop Helder ◽  
Henry Bandringa

Breaking waves have been a popular research area among scientists and engineers since they present a strongly nonlinear and turbulent phenomenon. When these waves encounter an offshore or coastal structure, they exert significant amount of loads and stresses, which may result in a catastrophic consequence. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to study breaking waves and associated phenomena. Inspired by this need, in a recent MARIN experiment kinematics of breaking waves were measured with Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). Among different types of breaking waves, spilling breakers were selected in this initial campaign. First, a summary of the measurement results will be given. These results will then be used for validation of a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tool. In numerical simulations two methods were followed in order to reproduce the focused wave: in the first method, the CFD tool was coupled to a nonlinear wave model, and in the second method an iterative scheme was used with the CFD tool. Results from these methods were then compared with the measurements.


1978 ◽  
Vol 1 (16) ◽  
pp. 148
Author(s):  
G.R. Mogridge ◽  
W.W. Jamieson

Cooling water from a power generating station in Eastern Canada is pumped to an outfall and distributed into the ocean through discharge ports in the sidewalls of a diffuser cap. The cap is essentially a shell-type structure consisting of a submerged circular cylinder 26.5 ft in diameter and 14 ft high. It is located in 25 ft of water at low water level and 54 ft at high water level. Horizontal forces, vertical forces and overturning moments exerted by waves on a 1:36 scale model of the diffuser cap were measured with and without cooling water discharging from the outfall. Tests were run with regular and irregular waves producing both non-breaking and breaking wave loads on the diffuser cap. The overturning moments measured on the diffuser cap were up to 150 percent greater than those on a solid submerged cylinder sealed to the seabed. Unlike sealed cylinders, all of the wave loads measured on the relatively open structure reached maximum values at approximately the same time. The largest wave loads were measured on the diffuser structure when it was subjected to spilling breakers at low water level. For a given wave height, the spilling breakers caused wave loads up to 100 percent greater than those due to non-breaking waves.


2009 ◽  
Vol 633 ◽  
pp. 271-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. D. DIORIO ◽  
X. LIU ◽  
J. H. DUNCAN

In the present paper, the profiles of incipient spilling breaking waves with wavelengths ranging from 10 to 120cm were studied experimentally in clean water. Short-wavelength breakers were generated by wind, while longer-wavelength breakers were generated by a mechanical wavemaker, using either a dispersive focusing or a sideband instability mechanism. The crest profiles of these waves were measured with a high-speed cinematic laser-induced fluorescence technique. For all the wave conditions reported herein, wave breaking was initiated with a capillary-ripple pattern as described in Duncan et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 379, 1999, pp. 191–222). In the present paper, it is shown that at incipient breaking the crest shape is self-similar with two geometrical parameters that depend only on the slope of a particular point on the front face of the gravity wave. The scaling relationships appear to be universal for the range of wavelengths studied herein and hold for waves generated by mechanical wavemakers and by wind. The slope measure is found to be dependent on the wave phase speed and the rate of growth of the crest height prior to incipient breaking.


1978 ◽  
Vol 1 (16) ◽  
pp. 104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy W. Kana

Suspended sediment concentration was measured in approximately 250 breaking waves on undeveloped beaches near Price Inlet, South Carolina, U.S.A., using portable in situ bulk water samplers. As many as 10 instantaneous 2-liter water volumes were obtained in each wave for a total of 1500 samples. Concentrations of suspended sediment were determined at fixed intervals of 10, 30, 60 and 100 cm above the bed for various surf zone positions relative to the breakpoint. The majority of waves sampled during 22 days in June and July, 1977 were relatively long crested, smooth, spilling to plunging in form, with breaker heights ranging from 20 to 150 cm. Surf zone process variables measured included breaker height and depth, breaker type, wave period, surface longshore current velocity, wind velocity and direction. Scatter plots of mean concentration against various process parameters indicate the amount of sediment entrained in breaking waves is primarily a function of elevation above the bed, breaker type, breaker height and distance from the breakpoint. Concentration ranged over 3 orders of magnitude up to 10 gm/1, but varied less than 1 order for samples collected under similar conditions with regard to elevation and breaker type. Plunging breakers generally entrain 1 order more sediment than spilling breakers equal in height. Despite considerable scatter, these data indicate concentration decreases with increasing wave height for waves 50 to 150 cm high, suggesting that small waves can be important in the transport of sand on gently-sloping open coasts.


2003 ◽  
Vol 125 (2) ◽  
pp. 94-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svein Helge Gjøsund

It has proven difficult to describe the kinematics in irregular waves satisfactorily, in particular for the surface zone in broad-banded waves. A Lagrangian approach offers distinct advantages in this respect, eliminating the need for extrapolation of solutions or “stretching” of coordinates. This paper presents a model of irregular waves based on superposition of linear Lagrangian wave components, using an iterative method to obtain the Eulerian solution. This approach yields theoretically consistent results everywhere in the waves, and comparisons with wave flume measurements show good agreement. Also, the linear Lagrangian model includes wave interactions that would be nonlinear in an Eulerian formulation.


Author(s):  
Jule Scharnke ◽  
Rene Lindeboom ◽  
Bulent Duz

Breaking waves have been studied for many decades and are still of interest as these waves contribute significantly to the dynamics and loading of offshore structures. In current MARIN research this awareness has led to the setup of an experiment to determine the kinematics of breaking waves using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The purpose of the measurement campaign is to determine the evolution of the kinematics of breaking focussed waves. In addition to the PIV measurements in waves, small scale wave-in-deck impact load measurements on a fixed deck box were carried out in the same wave conditions. To investigate the link between wave kinematics and wave-in-deck impact loads, simplified loading models for estimating horizontal deck impact loads were applied and compared to the measured impact loads. In this paper, the comparison of the model test data to estimated loads is presented.


2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (32) ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Shan-Hwei Ou ◽  
Tai-Wen Hsu ◽  
Jian-Feng Lin ◽  
Jian-Wu Lai ◽  
Shih-Hsiang Lin ◽  
...  

A laboratory measurement on the flow field, turbulence and wave energy of spilling breakers over artificial reefs is presented. Instantaneous velocity fields of propagating breaking waves on artificial reefs were measured using Particle Image Velocimeter (PIV) and Bubble Image Velocimeter (BIV). Variations of water surface elevation were observed by using Charge Coupled Device (CCD) cameras with horizontal posture. The experimental results showed that the initial bubble velocity in the aerated region is faster than phase speed with a factor of 1.26. The velocity profiles are identical to the shallow water theory. It is found that a low flow velocity exists due to an opposite but equal onshore and offshore velocity. Significant turbulent kinetic energy and turbulent Reynolds stress are produced by breaking waves in the front of aerated region, then move offshore and decay. The calculated total energy dissipation rate was compared to that based on a bore approximation.


Author(s):  
Michael Vigsø ◽  
Christos Georgakis

Abstract Load effects from breaking waves on offshore structures may be a driving point for the design. It is hence important to assess the likelihood of occurrence along the magnitude of the loads in the event of an impact. Traditionally, loads are predicted using wave theory combined with a load model such as the Morison. This paper features an alternative approach in determining the loads from wave breaking. It is demonstrated how the structural response can be used for (indirectly) estimating the magnitude of the loads caused by wave breaking. The theory is applied to an experimental setup in a wave flume, where a flexible model is subjected to loads from breaking waves. The dynamic properties are mapped using operational modal analysis and it is consequently shown that the loads can be identified using the vibration measurements.


2008 ◽  
Vol 26 (8) ◽  
pp. 2131-2142 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. K. Tsoukala ◽  
C. I. Moutzouris

Abstract. In the present paper a modified vorticity-based model for gas transfer under breaking waves in the absence of significant wind forcing is presented. A theoretically valid and practically applicable mathematical expression is suggested for the assessment of the oxygen transfer coefficient in the area of wave-breaking. The proposed model is based on the theory of surface renewal that expresses the oxygen transfer coefficient as a function of both the wave vorticity and the Reynolds wave number for breaking waves. Experimental data were collected in wave flumes of various scales: a) small-scale experiments were carried out using both a sloping beach and a rubble-mound breakwater in the wave flume of the Laboratory of Harbor Works, NTUA, Greece; b) large-scale experiments were carried out with a sloping beach in the wind-wave flume of Delft Hydraulics, the Netherlands, and with a three-layer rubble mound breakwater in the Schneideberg Wave Flume of the Franzius Institute, University of Hannover, Germany. The experimental data acquired from both the small- and large-scale experiments were in good agreement with the proposed model. Although the apparent transfer coefficients from the large-scale experiments were lower than those determined from the small-scale experiments, the actual oxygen transfer coefficients, as calculated using a discretized form of the transport equation, are in the same order of magnitude for both the small- and large-scale experiments. The validity of the proposed model is compared to experimental results from other researchers. Although the results are encouraging, additional research is needed, to incorporate the influence of bubble mediated gas exchange, before these results are used for an environmental friendly design of harbor works, or for projects involving waste disposal at sea.


Author(s):  
Carl Trygve Stansberg ◽  
Kjetil Berget ◽  
Mateusz Graczyk ◽  
Chittiappa Muthanna ◽  
Csaba Pakozdi

A need has been identified to improve the knowledge about extreme slamming loads from breaking waves on vertical columns, such as offshore platforms and wind turbine foundations. Due to strongly nonlinear physical mechanisms and large statistical variability, more and improved experimental data are needed, as well as better qualified design procedures. In this paper, model test data and CFD simulations from a recent study with a fixed vertical column are compared and investigated in more detail. Selected individual extreme slamming events due to energetic breaking waves in 1:40 and 1:125 scaled model tests are presented and considered. Waves correspond approximately to extreme breaking wave occurrences in steep energetic sea states with 10-4 annual probability in the Norwegian sector. Slamming pressures on the column wall are measured in time and space by means of a 7 × 7 pressure sensor array covering 19m2 (full scale). Significant spatial variations are observed. When spatially averaged over the array, the observed highest pressures are typically in the range 1MPa–3MPa (full scale), while smaller measuring areas give higher values. This compares roughly to levels found from recent results in the literature; although exact comparison is difficult due to statistical uncertainty issues. Experiences obtained from parallel CFD and PIV activities are also compared to the experiments, from which free-surface particle velocities up to 25m/s (full scale) are estimated in the worst cases. Finally, a simple empirical formula for a slamming coefficient depending on the actual pressure integration area is suggested based on the results.


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