Abstract
Most studies of wave breaking on slopes to date have investigated regular waves or normal incident unidirectional waves. In this study, wave breakings of normal and oblique incident irregular waves and multidirectional irregular waves on a 1:15 slope were investigated. The breaking criteria of irregular waves based on significant wave height and individual wave height were determined. Firstly, breaker indexes calculated using significant wave heights at incipient breaking were analyzed; they were substantially lower than the breaker indexes of regular waves. The breaker index formulae of irregular waves are presented based on the referred formula of regular waves. Furthermore, the breaker indexes of oblique incident waves were larger than the breaker indexes of normal incident waves. However, wave directionality had little effect on breaker indexes under the present experimental conditions. Secondly, the breaker index (the ratio of significant wave height to water depth) in surf zone was analyzed. It increased with a decrease in relative water depth. Thirdly, information of individual waves in irregular wave trains was tracked by the wave-by-wave method. The breaker indexes derived by individual wave heights were larger than the incipient breaker indexes derived from significant wave heights. Based on previous empirical formulae, some relatively simple expressions are proposed to calculate individual breaking wave heights for unidirectional irregular waves.
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