Surf Similarity and Solitary Wave Runup
Publication: Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering
Volume 134, Issue 3
Abstract
The notion of surf similarity in the runup of solitary waves is revisited. We show that the surf similarity parameter for solitary waves may be effectively reduced to the beach slope divided by the offshore wave height to depth ratio. This clarifies its physical interpretation relative to a previous parameterization, which was not given in an explicit form. Good coherency with experimental (breaking) runup data is preserved with this simpler parameter. A recasting of analytical (nonbreaking) runup expressions for sinusoidal and solitary waves additionally shows that they contain identical functional dependence on their respective surf similarity parameters. Important equivalencies in the runup of sinusoidal and solitary waves are thus revealed.
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Acknowledgments
The writers thank Steven A. Hughes for providing much of the experimental data used herein. Helpful discussions with Hemming A. Schäffer are also acknowledged. This work was financially supported by the Danish Technical Research Council (STVF Grant No. UNSPECIFIED9801635). The writers also thank the Danish Center for Scientific Computing for providing computational resources, which were utilized in unshown numerical simulations supporting this work. This support is greatly appreciated.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering
Volume 134 • Issue 3 • May 2008
Pages: 195 - 198
Copyright
© 2008 ASCE.
History
Received: Mar 12, 2007
Accepted: Aug 13, 2007
Published online: May 1, 2008
Published in print: May 2008
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