BREAKING WAVE SETUP AND DECAY ON GENTLE SLOPES

Abstract

Waves of large amplitude on a gentle slope may form spilling breakers which propagate shoreward and are slowly transformed In addition, there occurs a modification of the mean water level termed wave setup An analytical description based upon consideration of momentum flux has been developed which predicts this wave setup and the decay history of breaking wave height The results have been compared with experiments and found quite satisfactory The effect of wave setup on breaking wave transformation is particularly important near the shoreline, where setup dominates the vanishing mean depth.