Resonances in an Evolving Hole in the Swash Zone
Publication: Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering
Volume 138, Issue 4
Abstract
Water oscillations observed in a 10-m-diameter, 2-m-deep hole excavated on the foreshore just above the low-tide line on an ocean beach were consistent with theory. When swashes first filled the initially circular hole on the rising tide, the dominant mode observed in the cross-shore velocity was consistent with a zero-order Bessel function solution (sloshing back and forth). As the tide rose and swash transported sediment, the hole’s diameter decreased, the water depth inside the hole remained approximately constant, and the frequency of the sloshing mode increased according to theory. About 1 h after the swashes first reached the hole it had evolved from a closed circle to a semicircle, open to the ocean. When the hole was nearly semicircular, the observed cross-shore velocity had two spectral peaks, one associated with the sloshing of a closed circle, the other associated with a quarter-wavelength mode in an open semicircle, both consistent with theory. As the hole evolved further toward a fully semicircular shape, the circular sloshing mode decreased, while the quarter-wavelength mode became dominant.
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Acknowledgments
The writers thank A. Apotsos, L. Goemaat, L. Gorrell, E. Ladouceur, P. Schultz, and the staff of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Field Research Facility, Duck, North Carolina, for helping obtain the field observations. The Office of Naval Research, a National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellowship, a National Science Foundation Career award, and a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship provided support.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering
Volume 138 • Issue 4 • July 2012
Pages: 299 - 302
Copyright
© 2012. American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 19, 2011
Accepted: Oct 27, 2011
Published online: Nov 3, 2011
Published in print: Jul 1, 2012
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