Author(s): Mohsin Siddique; Tarek Merabtene; Yoshimitsu Tajima

Linked Author(s): Mohsin Siddique, Tarek Merabtene

Keywords: Boussinesq equations; one-dimensional models; submerged breakwater; surface roller-type model; wave breaking; wave-breaking models; wave hydrodynamics

Abstract: This paper investigates the different wave transformation and hydrodynamic characteristics of three different wave-breaking models – friction-type, eddy viscosity-type and surface roller-type models – coupled with the weakly nonlinear Boussinesq equations with improved linear dispersion characteristics based on comparisons between predicted and measured wave-breaking phenomena. The experimental cases consider not only different breaker types but also different bathymetry conditions, i.e. uniform slopes and a uniform slope with a submerged breakwater. Although all of the properly calibrated wave-breaking models yield equally good predictions of wave heights, mean water levels and trough levels of breaking and broken waves, the models show clear differences in their predictions of the undertow velocity, near-bottom wave orbital velocity profile, wave skewness, and wave asymmetry. The importance of such differences in the predictive capabilities of these widely used wave-breaking models should be highlighted, particularly when extending the model to the prediction of coastal morphodynamics around the surf zone.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00221686.2017.1289261

Year: 2017