Beach nourishment effects on sand porosity variability

Abstract

A standard assumption in coastal engineering is that the porosity of natural beach sand (non-cohesive) is 40%. However, is this assumption correct for all beach sand? This paper proposes an accurate and simplified method to assess changes in sand porosity after beach nourishment by means of in-situ density surveys through a nuclear densimeter. This novel application has been applied to different beaches in the southwest of Spain according to the tidal range, grain size and beach morphology in several terms. General results show that sand porosities range from 25.6% to 43.4% after beach nourishment works. This research can be considered a support tool in coastal engineering to find shifting sand volumes as a result of sand porosity variability after beach nourishment and later marine influence.