Wave transformation

Abstract

Wave transformation is studied for a new data set collected on a mobile bed beach in a hydraulic model. Irregular waves are simulated on a beach with parallel contours. It was found that wave refraction is well described by Snell's Law, that wave shoaling is slightly overpredicted by linear theory, that bottom friction effect is small, even in hydraulic models which exhibit large bed forms, that percolation effect is small, even though the model grain size is quite large compared to the wave dimensions and that wave attenuation by wave saturation must definitely be considered. © 1991.