Supertank Laboratory Data Collection Project

In the summer of 1991, a multi-institutional cooperative laboratory data collection project called SUPERTANK was conducted to investigate cross-shore hydrodynamic and sediment transport processes using the large wave channel located at Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon. The channel is 104 m long, 3.7 m wide, and 4.6 m deep, into which a 76-m long sandy beach was emplaced. SUPERTANK is believed to be the most densely and comprehensively instrumented nearshore processes data collection project performed in the laboratory or the field. At the peak of data collection, the channel was instrumented with 16 resistance wave gages, 10 capacitance wave gages, 18 two-component electromagnetic current meters, 34 optical backscatter sensors (OBS), 10 pore-pressure gages, 3 acoustic sediment concentration profilers, 1 acoustic-Doppler current profiler, 1 four-ring acoustic benthic stress gage, 1 laser Doppler velocimeter, 5 video cameras, and 2 underwater video cameras. Broad- and narrow-band random waves and monochromatic waves were run with zero-moment wave heights in the range of 0.2 to 1.0 m and with peak spectral periods in the range of 3 to 10 sec. The wave generator absorbed waves at the peak spectral frequency that were reflected from the beach and structures such as dunes and seawalls. Twenty major data collection runs were made, most defined as starting from a new beach profile, and approximately 350 profile surveys were taken to record beach response during the 129 hr of wave action. This paper gives an overview of the SUPERTANK project and presents example results.