Shallow Water Wave Characteristics

Abstract

Prototype data from 24 wave stations on and around the tidal flats south of the Elbe estuary enable us to elaborate special shallow water wave characteristics, concerning the variations and correlations of heights, periods, lengths and velocities. This paper deals with some interesting aspects from the engineer's point of view. It turns out that the steepness factor — or H L —^o- of breaking waves is much smaller than of nong- T^ breaking waves and that steepness is no suitable parameter to describe a natural wave spectrum in shallow waters. On the tidal flats the maximum wave heights only depend on the depth of water, not on the steepness. Moreover the possible wave height proves to become much higher than theoretically predicted, especially in depths of water less than 2 m.