Setup in the surfzone
Author(s)
Apotsos, Alex![Thumbnail](/bitstream/handle/1721.1/42219/230937720-MIT.pdf.jpg?sequence=5&isAllowed=y)
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Other Contributors
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Advisor
Britt Raubenheimer.
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Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Surfzone wave height transformation and wave-breaking-driven increases in the mean sea level (setup) are examined on alongshore-uniform beaches with alongshore homogeneous and inhomogeneous wave forcing. While previously derived models predict wave heights adequately (root-mean-square errors typically less than 20%), the models can be improved by tuning a free parameter or by using a new parameterization based on the deep-water wave height. Based on a sensitivity analysis of the cross-shore momentum balance used to predict setup, a one-dimensional (1-D) model is developed that includes wave rollers and bottom stress owing to the mean offshore-directed flow. The model predicts setup accurately at three alongshore homogeneous field sites, as well as at a site where the incident wave field is alongshore non-uniform, suggesting that setup is driven primarily by the cross-shore (1-D) forcing. Furthermore, alongshore gradients of setup can be important to driving alongshore flows in the surfzone, and the 1-D setup model predicts these gradients accurately enough to simulate the observed flows.
Description
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Joint Program in Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2007. Includes bibliographical references.
Date issued
2007Department
Joint Program in Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental EngineeringPublisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Keywords
/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Joint Program in Applied Ocean Science and Engineering., Civil and Environmental Engineering., Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.