Understanding the influence of beach morphology on the alongshore variance in wave run-up on an intermediate reflective beach, considering bars and cusps

Abstract

The topic which is considered in this thesis is: understanding the influence of beach morphology on the alongshore variance in wave run-up on an intermediate reflective beach, considering bars and cusps. The focus of this thesis is laid inside the swash zone, in which the water motion is present of waves that run up and run down on a beach. Energy from wave run-up could deliver erosion to the beach. It is relevant to know what the magnitude is of run-up during extreme events, in order to protect the beach. Several studies are done to wave run-up. There are relations which specify run-up, however, the alongshore variability is not studied in detail and less knowledge is available about this topic. At Anmok beach in South-Korea an intermediate reflective beach is present containing beach cusps and crescentic sandbars. A rhythmic bar and beach state contains the most complex morphology, furthermore the morphology changes a lot within intermediate beaches (Wright and Short [1]). The characteristics of this beach are used to perform an analysis to the influence of cusp and bar morphology on alongshore variation in wave run-up.

Run-up is composed of setup and swash. Setup is the super elevation of the mean water level, swash is ‘’a time-varying location of the intersection between the ocean and the beach’’ according to Stockdon, Holman [2]. Swash can be decomposed into two parts, incident band swash and infragravity band swash. Swash and setup depend on beach slope, deep-water wave height and the deep water period[2].

To analyse the alongshore variability multiple bathymetries have been generated on which 500 waves are modelled for 60 different wave condition. First of all a reference case is modelled with a uniform bathymetry. Secondly beach cusps are used as input with different length scales and at last a beach cusp with crescentic sandbar is used. The length scales of the cusps are 452, 300 and 100 metres. The bathymetries are idealized bathymetries with the characteristics of Anmok beach. The run-up and components are calculated and an analysis is done to the magnitude of run-up and the standard deviation along the beach.

The magnitude of run-up is lower for a cusp system compared with the reference situation and even lower for the cusp bar system. Furthermore there are no large differences in magnitude of run-up between different cusp lengths. A larger alongshore variance is observed when a cusp (bar) system is present. A cusp system of 452 metres contains larger run-up at the horn compared with the embayment, this holds for large and small wave heights. The difference is 18% and 8.4% respectively. However, when a cusp bar system is present less alongshore variability is visible and an opposite behaviour is visible for small wave heights. In this case the same pattern can be seen for large wave heights. A difference of 3.68% is seen when the horn is compared with the embayment. However, for small wave heights the run-up is 10.5% smaller at a horn compared with an embayment.

A cusp length of 100 metres shows different behaviour compared with a cusp length of 452 metres. Run-up is larger at an embayment compared to the horn. This holds for large wave heights. The alongshore variance is in this case larger compared to larger cusp lengths. A cusp of 452 metres and 300 metres leads to similar results, whereas a 100 metres cusp shows deviations. It could be edge waves which could have an influence on a cusp with a length of 100 metres.