An experimental and numerical study of long wave run-up on a plane beach

authored by

Ulrike Drähne, Nils Goseberg, Stefan Vater, Nicole Beisiegel, Jörn Behrens

Abstract

This research is to facilitate the current understanding of long wave dynamics at coasts and during on-land propagation; experimental and numerical approaches are compared against existing analytical expressions for the long wave run-up. Leading depression sinusoidal waves are chosen to model these dynamics. The experimental study was conducted using a new pump-driven wave generator and the numerical experiments were carried out with a one-dimensional discontinuous Galerkin non-linear shallow water model. The numerical model is able to accurately reproduce the run-up elevation and velocities predicted by the theoretical expressions. Depending on the surf similarity of the generated waves and due to imperfections of the experimental wave generation, riding waves are observed in the experimental results. These artifacts can also be confirmed in the numerical study when the data from the physical experiments is assimilated. Qualitatively, scale effects associated with the experimental setting are discussed. Finally, shoreline velocities, run-up and run-down are determined and shown to largely agree with analytical predictions.

Organisation(s)

Ludwig-Franzius-Institute of Hydraulics, Estuarine and Coastal Engineering

External Organisation(s)

University College London (UCL)
University of Ottawa
Universität Hamburg

Type

Article

Journal

Journal of Marine Science and Engineering

Volume

4

Publication date

01.03.2016

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Civil and Structural Engineering, Water Science and Technology, Ocean Engineering

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse4010001 (Access: Open)