Modelling the formation and the long‐term behavior of rip channel systems from the deformation of a longshore bar

Abstract

A nonlinear numerical model based on a wave‐ and depth‐averaged shallow water equation solver with wave driver, sediment transport, and bed updating is used to investigate the long‐term evolution of rip channel systems appearing from the deformation of a longshore bar. Linear and nonlinear regimes in the morphological evolution have been studied. In the linear regime, a crescentic bar system emerges as a free instability. In the nonlinear regime, merging/splitting in bars and saturation of the growth are obtained. In spite of excluding undertow and wave‐asymmetry sediment transport, the initial crescentic bar system reorganizes to form a large‐scale and shore‐attached transverse or oblique bar system, which is found to be a dynamical equilibrium state of the beach system. Thus the basic morphological transitions “Longshore Bar and Trough” → “Rhythmic Bar and Beach” → “Transverse Bar and Rip” described by earlier conceptual models are here reproduced. The study of the physical mechanisms allows us to understand the role of the different transport modes: The advective part induces the formation of crescentic bars and megacusps, and the bedslope transport damps the instability. Both terms contribute to the attachment of the megacusps to the crescentic bars. Depending on the wave forcing, the bar wavelength ranges between 180 and 250 m (165 and 320 m) in the linear (nonlinear) regime.