Long–wave forcing by the breaking of random gravity waves on a beach

Abstract

This paper presents new laboratory data on long-wave (surf-beat) forcing by the random breaking of shorter gravity water waves on a plane beach. The data include incident and outgoing wave amplitudes, together with shoreline oscillation amplitudes at long-wave frequencies, from which the correlation between forced long waves and short-wave groups is examined. A detailed analysis of the cross-shore structure of the long-wave motion is presented, and the observations are critically compared with existing theories for two-dimensional surf-beat generation. The surf beat shows a strong dependency on normalized surf-zone width, consistent with long-wave forcing by a time-varying breakpoint, with little evidence of the release and reflection of incident bound long waves for the random-wave simulations considered. The seaward-propagating long waves show a positive correlation with incident short-wave groups and are linearly dependent on short-wave amplitude. The phase relationship between the incident bound long waves and radiated free long waves is also consistent with breakpoint forcing. In combination with previous work, the present data suggest that the breakpoint variability may be the dominant forcing mechanism during conditions with steep incident short waves.