Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-2lccl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T19:47:35.835Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Integral flow properties of the swash zone and averaging

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2006

M. Brocchini
Affiliation:
School of Mathematics, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TW, UK
D. H. Peregrine
Affiliation:
School of Mathematics, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TW, UK

Abstract

The swash zone is that part of a beach over which the instantaneous shoreline moves back and forth as waves meet the shore. This zone is discussed using the nonlinear shallow water equations which are appropriate for gently sloping beaches. A weakly three-dimensional extension of the two-dimensional solution by Carrier & Greenspan (1958) of the shallow water equations for a wave reflecting on an inclined plane beach is developed and used to illustrate the ideas. Thereafter attention is given to integrated and averaged quantities. The mean shoreline might be defined in several ways, but for modelling purposes we find the lower boundary of the swash zone to be more useful. A set of equations obtained by integrating across the swash zone is investigated as a model for use as an alternative boundary condition for wave-resolving studies. Comparison with sample numerical computations illustrates that they are effective in modelling the dynamics of the swash zone and that a reasonable representation of swash zone flows may be obtained from the integrated variables. The longshore flow of water in the swash zone is in many ways similar to the Stokes’ drift of propagating water waves. Further averaging is made over short waves to obtain results suitable as boundary conditions for longer period motions including the effect of incident short waves. In order to clearly present the work a few simplifications are made. The main result is that in addition to the kinematic type of boundary condition that occurs on a simple, e.g. rigid, boundary two further conditions are found in order that both the changing position of the swash zone boundary and the longshore flow in the swash zone may be determined. Models of the short waves both outside and inside the swash zone are needed to complete a full wave-averaged model; only brief indication is given of such modelling.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1996 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arcilla, S. A. & Lemos, C. M. 1990 Surf Zone Hydrodynamics. Centro Internacional de Metodos Numericos en Ingeniera, Barcelona.
Battjes, J. A. 1988 Surf-zone dynamics. Ann. Rev. Fluid. Mech. 20, 257293.Google Scholar
Battjes, J. A. & Janssen, J. P. F. M. 1978 Energy loss and set-up due to breaking in random waves. Proc. 16th Intl Conf. on Coastal Engineering, ASCE, pp. 569587.
Carrier, G. F. 1966 Gravity waves on water of variable depth. J. Fluid Mech. 24, 641659.Google Scholar
Carrier, G. F. 1971 Dynamics of tsunamis. In Mathematical Problems in the Geophysical Sciences. Vol. 1: Geophysical Fluid Dynamics (ed. W. H. Reid). American Mathematical Society.
Carrier, G. F. & Greenspan, H. P. 1958 Water waves of finite amplitude on a sloping beach. J. Fluid Mech. 4, 97109.Google Scholar
Dodd, N. 1994 On the destabilization of a longshore current on a plane beach: Bottom shear stress, critical conditions, and onset of instability. J. Geophys. Res. 99, 811824.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galvin, C. J. 1972 Wave breaking in shallow water. In Waves on Beaches and Resulting Sediment Transport (ed. R. E. Meyer). Academic Press.
Hanson, B. A. 1926 The theory of ship waves. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A 111, 491529.Google Scholar
Hasselmann, K. 1971 On the mass and momentum transfer between short gravity waves and larger-scale motions. J. Fluid Mech. 50, 189205.Google Scholar
Hayes, W. D. 1973 Group velocity and nonlinear dispersive wave propagation. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A 332, 199221.Google Scholar
Hibberd, S. & Peregrine, D. H. 1979 Surf and run-up on a beach: a uniform bore. J. Fluid Mech. 95, 323345.Google Scholar
Ho, D. V. & Meyer, R. H. 1962 Climb of a bore on a beach. Part 1. Uniform beach slope. J. Fluid Mech. 14, 305318.Google Scholar
Keller, J. B. 1963 Tsunamis - Water waves produced by earthquakes. In Proc. Tsunami Meetings Associated with the Tenth Pacific Science Congress, 1991. IUGG Monograph, Vol. 24 (ed. D. C. Cox). Published for the Institut Geographique National, Paris.
Kobayashi, N., Otta, A. K. & Roy, I. 1987 Wave reflection and run-up on rough slopes. Proc. ASCE 113 (WW3), 282298.Google Scholar
Longuet-Higgins, M. S. & Stewart, R. W. 1964 Radiation stresses in water waves: a physical discussion, with applications. Deep-Sea Res. 11, 529562.Google Scholar
Mei, C. C. 1983 The Applied Dynamics of Ocean Surface Waves. John Wiley and Sons. (Current edition: World Scientific.)
Meyer, R. E. & Taylor, A. D. 1972 Run-up on beaches. In Waves on Beaches and Resulting Sediment Transport (ed. R. E. Meyer). Academic Press.
Nielsen, P. 1989 Wave setup and runup: an integrated approach. Coast. Engng. 13, 19.Google Scholar
Packwood, A. R. 1980 Surf and run-up on a beach. PhD thesis, University of Bristol.
Peregrine, D. H. 1972 Equations for water waves and the approximations behind them. In Waves on Beaches and Resulting Sediment Transport (ed. R. E. Meyer). Academic Press, New York.
Peregrine, D. H. 1983 Wave jumps and caustics in the propagation of finite-amplitude water waves. J. Fluid Mech. 136, 435452.Google Scholar
Ryrie, S. C. 1983 Longshore motion generated on beaches by obliquely incident bores. J. Fluid Mech. 129, 193212.Google Scholar
Shen, M. C. & Meyer, R. E. 1963 Climb of a bore on a beach. Part 3. Run-up. J. Fluid Mech. 16, 113125.Google Scholar
Stoker, J. J. 1947 Water Waves. Interscience.
Stokes, G. G. 1847 On the theory of oscillatory waves. Trans. Camb. Phil. Soc. 8, 441455.Google Scholar
Svendsen, I. A. & Lorenz, R. S. 1988 Velocities in combined undertow and longshore currents. Coast Engng 13, 5579.Google Scholar
Svendsen, I. A. & Putrevu, U. 1994 Nearshore mixing and dispersion. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A 445, 561576.Google Scholar
Symonds, G., Huntley, D. A. & Bowen, A. 1982 Two-dimensional surf beat: long wave generation by a time-varying break-point. J. Geophys. Res. 87, 492498.Google Scholar
Synolakis, C. E. 1987 The run-up of solitary waves. J. Fluid Mech. 185, 523545.Google Scholar
Thornton, E. B. & Abdelrahman, S. 1991 Sediment transport in the swash due to obliquely incident wind-waves modulated by infragravity waves. Proc. Coastal Sed. '91, pp. 100113.
Thornton, E. B. & Guza, R. T. 1983 Transformation of wave height distribution. J. Geophys. Res. 88, 59255938.Google Scholar
Van Dongeren, A. R., Sancho, F. E., Svendsen, I. A. & Putrevu, U. 1994 SHORECIRC: a quasi 3-D nearshore model. Proc. 24th Intl Conf. on Coastal Engineering, Kobe, ASCE, vol. 3, pp. 27412754.
Watson, G., Barnes, T. C. D. & Peregrine, D. H. 1994 The generation of low frequency waves by a single wave group incident on a beach. Proc. 24th Intl Conf. on Coastal Engineering, Kobe, ASCE, vol. 1, pp. 776790.
Watson, G., Peregrine, D. H. & Toro, E. F. 1992 Numerical solution of the shallow-water equations on a beach using the weighted average flux method. In Computational Fluid Dynamics '92 - Vol. 1 (ed. Ch. Hirsh et al.), pp. 495502. Elsevier.
Whitham, G. B. 1979 Lectures on Wave Propagation. Published for the Tata, Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay by Springer.