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Detailed measurements are presented of velocities and turbulence under a large‐scale regular plunging breaking wave in a wave flume. Measurements were obtained at 12 cross‐shore locations around a mobile medium‐sand breaker bar. They focused particularly on the dynamics of the wave bottom boundary layer (WBL) and near‐bed turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), measured with an Acoustic Concentration and Velocity Profiler (ACVP). The breaking process and outer flow hydrodynamics are in agreement with previous laboratory and field observations of plunging waves, including a strong undertow in the bar trough region. The WBL thickness matches with previous studies at locations offshore from the bar crest, but it increases near the breaking‐wave plunge point. This relates possibly to breaking‐induced TKE or to the diverging flow at the shoreward slope of the bar. Outer flow TKE is dominated by wave breaking and exhibits strong spatial variation with largest TKE above the breaker bar crest. Below the plunge point, breaking‐induced turbulence invades the WBL during both crest and trough half cycle. This results in an increase in the time‐averaged TKE in the WBL (with a factor 3) and an increase in peak onshore and offshore near‐bed Reynolds stresses (with a factor 2) from shoaling to breaking region. A fraction of locally produced TKE is advected offshore over a distance of a few meters to shoaling locations during the wave trough phase, and travels back onshore during the crest half cycle. The results imply that breaking‐induced turbulence, for large‐scale conditions, may significantly affect near‐bed sediment transport processes.

This study presents novel insights into hydrodynamics and sediment fluxes in large‐scale laboratory experiments with bichromatic wave groups on a relatively steep initial beach slope (1:15). An Acoustic Concentration and Velocity Profiler provided detailed information of velocity and sand concentration near the bed from shoaling up to the outer breaking zone including suspended sediment and sheet flow transport. The morphological evolution was characterized by offshore migration of the outer breaker bar. Decomposition of the total net transport revealed a balance of onshore‐directed, short wave‐related and offshore‐directed, current‐related net transport. The short wave‐related transport mainly occurred as bedload over small vertical extents. It was linked to characteristic intrawave sheet flow layer expansions during short wave crests. The current‐related transport rate featured lower maximum flux magnitudes but occurred over larger vertical extents. As a result, it was larger than the short wave‐related transport rate in all but one cross‐shore position, driving the bar’s offshore migration. Net flux magnitudes of the infragravity component were comparatively low but played a nonnegligible role for total net transport rate in certain cross‐shore positions. Net infragravity flux profiles sometimes featured opposing directions over the vertical. The fluxes were linked to a standing infragravity wave pattern and to the correlation of the short wave envelope, controlling suspension, with the infragravity wave velocity.

Large scale laboratory measurements of sediment dynamics in the swash zone are presented. Two bichromatic wave group conditions were generated, having the same energy content but different wave group period (T g = 15.0 s and 27.7 s). For the shortest wave group, due to bore focussing, the shoreline fluctuates predominantly at the T g time scale, showing a large runup and the presence of wave-swash interactions with strong momentum exchange. In contrast, for the longer wave groups, the swash excursion is dominated by the individual waves. The uprush generally promotes onshore sediment advection with consequent erosion at the rundown location but accretion close to the runup. On the contrary, the backwash promotes seaward sediment advection and accretion at the rundown location. The presence of repeated wave-swash interactions modifies these patterns slightly. A wave overrunning a previous uprush promotes a reduction in onshore sediment advection while weak wave-backwash interactions reduce seaward advection. Consequently, the measured sediment dynamics shows stronger intra-swash cross-shore sediment advection for the swash events produced by the short wave groups. Measurements of the sheet flow layer near the shoreline show that for the shortest wave groups the vertical structure of the concentration

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A large‐scale wave flume experiment has been carried out involving a T = 4 s regular wave with H = 0.85 m wave height plunging over a fixed barred beach profile. Velocity profiles were measured at 12 locations along the breaker bar using LDA and ADV. A strong undertow is generated reaching magnitudes of 0.8 m/s on the shoreward side of the breaker bar. A circulation pattern occurs between the breaking area and the inner surf zone. Time‐averaged turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) is largest in the breaking area on the shoreward side of the bar where the plunging jet penetrates the water column. At this location, and on the bar crest, TKE generated at the water surface in the breaking process reaches the bottom boundary layer. In the breaking area, TKE does not reduce to zero within a wave cycle which leads to a high level of “residual” turbulence and therefore lower temporal variation in TKE compared to previous studies of breaking waves on plane beach slopes. It is argued that this residual turbulence results from the breaker bar‐trough geometry, which enables larger length scales and time scales of breaking‐generated vortices and which enhances turbulence production within the water column compared to plane beaches. Transport of TKE is dominated by the undertow‐related flux, whereas the wave‐related and turbulent fluxes are approximately an order of magnitude smaller. Turbulence production and dissipation are largest in the breaker zone and of similar magnitude, but in the shoaling zone and inner surf zone production is negligible and dissipation dominates.

Wave boundary layer (WBL) dynamics are measured with an Acoustic Concentration andVelocity Profiler (ACVP) across the sheet flow-dominated wave-breaking region of regular large-scale waves breaking as a plunger over a developing breaker bar. Acoustic sheet flow measurements are first evaluated quantitatively in comparison to Conductivity Concentration Meter (CCM+) data used as a reference. The near-bed orbital velocity field exhibits expected behaviors in terms of wave shape, intrawave WBL thickness, and velocity phase leads. The observed fully turbulent flow regime all across the studied wave-breaking region supports the model-predicted transformation of free-stream velocity asymmetry into near-bed velocity skewness inside the WBL. Intrawave concentration dynamics reveal the existence of a lower pickup layer and an upper sheet flow layer similar to skewed oscillatory sheet flows, and with similar characteristics in terms of erosion depth and sheet flow layer thickness. Compared to the shoaling region, differences in terms of sheet flow and hydrodynamic properties of the flow are observed at the plunge point, attributed to the locally enhanced wave breaker turbulence. The ACVP-measured total sheet flow transport rate is decomposed into its current-, wave-, and turbulence-driven components. In the shoaling region, the sand transport is found to be fully dominated by the onshore skewed wave-driven component with negligible phase lag effects. In the outer surf zone, the total net flux exhibits a three-layer vertical structure typical of skewed oscillatory sheet flows. However, in the present experiments this structure originates from offshore-directed undertow-driven flux, rather than from phase lag effects. Plain Language SummaryWe focus here on novel wave boundary layer hydrodynamics and sheet flow properties obtained with the Acoustic Concentration and Velocity Profiler measurement technology. It is the first time this advanced acoustic instrumentation is used for high-resolution measurements of wave-driven sheet flows under large-scale breaking waves. The wave boundary layer hydrodynamics and, in particular, the detailed properties of the sheet flow dynamics in terms of pickup layer, bedload, and suspended sand transport are investigated. Finally, sand fluxes (as transport rates) decomposed into the undertow-, the wave-and the turbulence-driven contributions allow a new insight into the underlying sand transport mechanisms in the scientifically challenging, coastal wave-breaking region. These results are compared to sheet flow properties obtained in (nonbreaking) oscillatory flows (from experiments in U-tube facilities) in order to show how the wave-breaking process impacts the internal and external sheet flow dynamics.FROMANT ET AL. 75

This study presents measurements of sheet flow processes, grain sorting, and bedload plus suspended load transport rates around a medium-sand breaker bar in a large-scale wave flume. The results offer insights in effects of wave breaking on bedload and grain sorting processes and in the quantitative contributions by bedload and suspended transport to breaker bar morphodynamics. Sheet flow layer dynamics are highly similar to observations under non-breaking waves, revealing clear effects by velocity asymmetry but no evident effects by breaking-generated turbulence, bed slope, or the cross-shore non-uniform flow. The sheet flow layer thickness can be predicted using existing empirical formulations based on local hydrodynamic forcing. At locations covering the shoaling region up to the bar crest the cross-shore variation in bedload transport rates is explained by variations in wave shape (i.e. velocity skewness and asymmetry). At locations between bar crest and bar trough, bedload transport rate magnitudes correlate positively with bed slope and turbulent kinetic energy. Bedload and suspended load transport rates are of similar magnitude but of opposite sign. Bedload transport is onshore-directed and dominates in the shoaling zone, but after wave breaking, the offshore-directed suspended sediment transport increases in magnitude and exceeds bedload transport rates in the breaking and inner surf zones. Bedload and suspended load transport contribute notably differently to bed profile evolution: bedload transfers sand grains from the offshore slope to the bar crest and additionally leads to erosion of the shoreward bar slope and deposition at the bar trough, while suspended load transport induces an opposite pattern of erosion at the bar trough and accretion at the bar crest. Grain size analysis of suspended sediment samples reveals size-selective entrainment and vertical size segregation in the inner surf zone, but suggest size-indifferent entrainment and vertical mixing by energetic vortices in the breaking region. Size-selective transport by bedload and suspended load leads to a cross-shore coarsening of the bed from shoaling to inner surf zone, with local additional sorting mechanisms around the breaker bar due to bed slope effects.