A wide-angle model for water-wave propagation on an irregular bathymetry is developed based on the linear mild-slope equation. The spectral model decomposes the incident wavetrain into directional modes, or an angular spectrum. The effect of the bottom topography is shown to force the generation of additional directional wave modes. Nonlinearity is incorporated in the model by correcting the wave parameters iteratively using an empirical nonlinear dispersion relationship which is approximately valid over the entire range of water depths.Numerical examples are presented for waves incident on a transverse bar field, a laboratory experiment involving wave focusing over an elliptic shoal on a sloping beach for which detailed measurements are available and for waves focusing behind a circular shoal resting on a flat botom. The application of the model is limited to cases in which the model domain is rectangular and the depth variation in the lateral direction is small if waves of large incident angle are modelled.
An angular spectrum model for predicting the transformation of Stokes waves on a mildly varying topography is developed, including refraction, diffraction, shoaling and nonlinear wave interactions. The equations governing the water-wave motion are perturbed using the method of multiple scales and Stokes expansions for the velocity potential and free-surface displacement. The first-order solution is expressed as an angular spectrum, or directional modes, of the wave field propagating on a beach with straight iso-baths whose depth is given by laterally averaged depths. The equations for the evolution of the angular spectrum due to the effects of bottom variation and cubic resonant interaction are obtained from the higher-order problems. Comparison of the present model with existing models is made for some simple cases. Numerical examples of the time-independent version of the model are presented for laboratory experiments for wave diffraction behind a breakwater gap and wave focusing over submerged shoals: an elliptic shoal on a sloping beach and a circular shoal on a flat bottom.
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