Identification

Title

Modeled surf‐zone eddies on a laboratory scale barred beach with varying wave conditions

Abstract

Transient rip currents drive cross‐shore transport of nutrients, larvae, sediment, and other particulate matter. These currents are driven by short‐crested wave breaking, which is associated with rotational wave‐breaking forces (vorticity forcing) that generate horizontal rotational motions (eddies) at small scales. Energy from small‐scale eddies is transferred to larger‐scale eddies that interact and enhance cross‐shore exchange. Previous numerical modeling work on planar beaches has shown that cross‐shore exchange increases with increasing wave directional spread, but this relationship is not established for barred beaches, and processes connecting the wavefield to cross‐shore exchange are not well constrained. We investigate surf‐zone eddy processes using numerical simulations (FUNWAVE‐TVD) and large‐scale laboratory observations of varying offshore wave directional spreads (0 to ) and peak period (1.5–2.5 s) on an alongshore uniform barred beach. We find that mean breaking crest length decreases, while crest end density (number of crest ends in a given area) increases, with increasing directional spread. In contrast, vorticity forcing, offshore low‐frequency rotational motion, and cross‐shore exchange peak at intermediate directional spreads . Distributions of the strength of vorticity forcing per crest and across the surf zone suggest that the peak in vorticity forcing at intermediate spreads results from a combination of a larger total breaking area and relatively long crests with large forcing, despite a lower total number of crests. However, low‐frequency rotational motion within the surf zone does not peak at mid‐directional spread, instead plateauing at directional spreads greater than . Results suggest that eddy‐eddy interaction, the transformation of vorticity across the surf zone, and influence of bathymetry are fruitful topics for future work.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7p84h9v

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

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Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2025-01-01T00:00:00Z

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Conformity

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version of format

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Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact