Parameterization of nearshore wave front slope

Breaking characteristics and geometric properties of spilling breakers over slopes

Large-eddy and interface simulation using an interface tracking-based multi-fluid flow solver is conducted to investigate the breaking of steep water waves on a beach of constant bed slope. The present investigation focuses mainly on the ‘weak plunger’ breaking wave type and provides a detailed analysis of the two-way interaction between the mean fluid flow and the sub-modal motions, encompassing wave dynamics and turbulence. The flow is analysed from two points of views: mean to sub-modal exchange, and wave to turbulence interaction within the sub-modal range. Wave growth and propagation are due to energy transfer from the mean flow to the waves, and transport of mean momentum by these waves. The vigorous downwelling–upwelling patterns developing at the head and tail of each breaker are shown to generate both negative- and positive-signed energy exchange contributions in the thin sublayer underneath the water surface. The details of these exchange mechanisms are thoroughly discussed in this paper, together with the interplay between three-dimensional small-scale breaking associated with turbulence and the dominant two-dimensional wave motion. A conditional zonal analysis is proposed for the first time to understand the transient mechanisms of turbulent kinetic energy production, decay, diffusion and transport and their dependence and/or impact on surface wrinkling over the entire breaking process. The simulations provide a thorough picture of air–liquid coherent structures that develop over the breaking process, and link them to the transient mechanisms responsible for their local incidence.

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Turbulence structure and interaction with steep breaking waves

Characteristics and profile asymmetry properties of waves breaking over an impermeable submerged reef

The analysis of the water wave breaking phenomenon has been on-going for almost 150 years, and many research papers have been published approximating both the local geographic and geometric characteristics of breaking waves. This review of original empirical work, the relationships theorized by each author, and their regions of applicability are detailed to give a historical perspective of wave breaking research but also to illustrate advances in recent years. Subsequently published validity investigations by other authors show the variability and limitations of each approximation and illustrate that the level of understanding in wave breaking parameters has progressed considerably. The understanding of the defining variables in wave breaking progresses annually, however predicting the location, depth and shape of the wave at breaking is still not universally defined. This is in part due to the inherent variability in nature of breaking waves; however, it is compounded by a lack of a collective measuremen...

Ming-Jen Huang

Papers

Examination of empirical formulas for wave shoaling and breaking on steep slopes

Wave Shoaling On Steep Slopes And Breaking Criteria