Limits of Beach and Dune Erosion in Response to Wave Runup Elucidated from SUPERTANK

Abstract

Abstract:The unique dataset from SUPERTANK is analyzed to examine the upper limit of beach change in response to elevated water level caused by wave runup. Thirty SUPERTANK runs are investigated, including both erosional and accretionary wave conditions under random and monochromatic waves. The upper limit of beach change approximately equals the maximum vertical excursion of swash runup. Exceptions to this direct relationship are those with beach or dune scarps. The vertical extent of wave runup above mean water level on a non-scarped beach is approximately equal to the significant breaking wave height. Scarps substantially limit the uprush of swash motion, resulting in a much reduced maximum runup. Predictions of wave runup are not improved by including a slope-dependent surf-similarity parameter. The limit of wave runup is substantially less for monochromatic waves than for random waves, attributed to absence of low-frequency motion for monochromatic waves.

3D Physical Modeling of an Artificial Beach Nourishment: Laboratory Procedures and Nourishment Performance

“…The profile has a submerged length (l s ) of 6 m that develops towards a total depth of 0.4 m (defined through Roberts' [26] formulation 27), which corresponds to the closure depth (d c ) and the adopted maximum offshore depth, giving the profile a total height (h t ) of 52 cm (Figure 1), with a slope (β) of 0.03. The total cross-shore extension of the beach was of 10 m.…”

“…The profile has a submerged length (ls) of 6 m that develops towards a total depth of 0.4 m (defined through Roberts' [26] formulation 27), which corresponds to the closure depth (dc) and the adopted maximum offshore depth, giving the profile a total height (ht) of 52 cm (Figure 1), with a slope (β) of 0.03. The total cross-shore extension of the beach was of 10 m. The modeled beach was built over a dissipative beach to reduce the amount of sediment necessary for the model and to dissipate the wave energy propagating and breaking over the model landward limit (Figure 2).…”

Storm-Induced Morphology Changes along Barrier Islands and Poststorm Recovery

“…Based on a series of large-scale laboratory experiments at SUPERTANK (Kraus and Smith, 1994) and Large-scale Sediment Transport Facility (LSTF) (Wang et al, 2002a(Wang et al, , 2002b, Roberts et al (2010) developed a simple empirical formula linking maximum wave runup (R tw ) to significant breaking wave height (H bs ) as…”

Limits of Wave Runup and Corresponding Beach-Profile Change from Large-Scale Laboratory Data

“…The horizontal axis ''distance'' refers to the SUPERTANK coordinate system and is not directly related to morphological features. and Kraus (2007). The first SUPERTANK wave run, ST10A, was conducted with a monotonic initial profile (Equation 8).…”