The ocean deployment of arrays of Wave Energy Converters (WEC arrays) appears likely in the near future, and deployment of offshore wind turbines has already started. These technologies tap into a potential renewable energy resource but also involve complex systems with uncertain environmental consequences that will likely scale with the...
This article was originally published online and in print with an incorrect version of Fig. 1. AIP apologizes for this error. All online versions of the article have been corrected.
Models for surface gravity wave propagation in the presence of currents often assume the current field to be quasi-stationary, which implies that the absolute wave frequency is time invariant. However, in the presence of unsteady currents or time-varying water depth, linear wave theory predicts a time variation of the absolute...
We investigate, theoretically and experimentally, the problem of modeling depth-integrated (2DH) surf zone circulation on an alongshore-nonuniform natural beach, with waves approaching from an arbitrary angle. An approximate theoretical model is developed, which captures the important effect of advection in the alongshore dynamics, and shows that a nondimensional parameter Re[subscript]s...
The impact of assimilation of wave-averaged flow velocities on the bathymetric correction is studied in tests with synthetic (model-generated) data using tangent-linear and adjoint components of a one-way coupled nearshore wave-circulation model. Weakly and strongly nonlinear regimes are considered, featuring energetic unsteady along-beach flows responding to time-independent wave-averaged forcing due...
urface wave transformation and the resulting nearshore circulation along a section of coast with strong alongshore bathymetric gradients outside the surf zone are modeled for a consecutive 4 week time period. The modeled hydrodynamics are compared to in situ measurements of waves and currents collected during the Nearshore Canyon Experiment...
We examine the effects of wave-current interaction on the dynamics of instabilities of
the surf zone longshore current. We utilize coupled models for the simulation of the
incident waves and the wave-induced nearshore circulation. The coupling between the
models occurs through radiation stress gradient terms (accounting for the generation of...
The dynamics of vorticity motions forced by wave groups incident on an
alongshore-uniform barred beach are analyzed. For both normally and obliquely incident
wave groups, the potential vorticity and enstrophy equations reveal that the temporal
variability of wave group–forced vortices is directly linked to the variability in the
incoming wave...
The rip current field resulting from the transformation of surface gravity waves over
offshore submarine canyons is studied. Employing a wave transformation model and a
wave-induced circulation model over observed bathymetry we find that wave height
variations associated with undulations in the canyon contours cause rip current circulation
cells with...
A method is presented for estimating bathymetry in a river, based on observations of depth-averaged velocity during steady flow. The estimator minimizes a cost function that combines known information in the form of a prior estimate and measured data (including measurement noise). State augmentation is used to relate the measured...