Repeatability of beach morphology change under identical wave forcing

Laboratory investigations of beach morphology change under wave action are undertaken to gain insight into coastal processes, design coastal structures and validate the predictions of numerical models. For the results of such experiments to be reliable, it is necessary that they are repeatable. The equilibrium beach concept, that beach morphology will evolve to a quasi-static equilibrium shape for a given forcing suggests that experiments should be repeatable to some degree. However, sediment transport in turbulent breaking and broken waves is complex and highly variable and the level of repeatability at different temporal and spatial scales is challenging to measure, as such, previous work has restricted comparisons to small numbers of waves. Here we use the results of two identical, 20-h large-scale wave flume experiments to investigate the repeatability of sediment transport and beach morphology change under waves at timescales down to individual swash events. It is shown that while flow characteristics from identical swash events are very repeatable, the sediment transported can be very different in both magnitude and direction due to differences in turbulence, sediment advection and morphological feedback. Over longer periods containing multiple matching swash events however, the beach responds in a very similar manner, with the level of morphological repeatability increasing with time. The results also demonstrate that gross swash zone sediment transport remains high even as a beach profile approaches quasi-equilibrium, but the proportion of individual swash events that cause large sediment fluxes (>±7.5 kg/event/m) reduces with time. The results of this laboratory study indicate that beach morphology change has a level of determinism over timescales of several minutes and longer, giving confidence in the results from physical modelling studies. However, the large differences in sediment transport from apparently identical swash events questions the value in pursuing numerical predictions of sediment transport at the wave-by-wave timescale unless the reversals in sediment transport between apparently near identical swash events can also be predicted

Laboratory investigation of slamming load contribution of plunging breaker

Plunging breakers could induce one of the most devastating forces on an offshore structure. As compared to non-breaking wave, a plunging breaker would induce an additional slamming load on an offshore structure. Current industry guidelines for design breaking wave slamming coefficient do not take into account of the geometric cross section of the offshore structures and the breaking wave parameters. The slamming load is affected by a few factors; the capability of the structure to entrap air upon the onset of plunging breakers, breaking wave parameter – rise time, just to name a few. This research paper attempts to expand the correlation of the slamming load coefficient to the geometric cross section of the section and the rise time of the impact breaking wave. It was found out that the geometrical cross section of cylinders do have significant impact on the slamming coefficient. The rise time of the plunging breaker does have an impact on the slamming load itself, but the impact the rise time had on the slamming coefficient is indistinctive

Peptide YY ablation in mice leads to the development of hyperinsulinaemia and obesity

Aims/hypothesis. Obese people exhibit reduced circulating peptide YY (PYY) levels, but it is unclear whether this is a consequence or cause of obesity. We therefore investigated the effect of Pyy ablation on energy homeostasis. Methods. Body composition, i.p. glucose tolerance, food intake and hypothalamic neuropeptide expression were determined in Pyy knock-out and wild-type mice on a normal or high-fat diet. Results. Pyy knock-out significantly increased bodyweight and increased fat mass by 50% in aged females on a normal diet. Male chow-fed Pyy −/− mice were resistant to obesity but became significantly fatter and glucose-intolerant compared with wild-types when fed a high-fat diet. Pyy knock-out animals exhibited significantly elevated fasting or glucose-stimulated serum insulin concentrations vs wild-types, with no increase in basal or fasting-induced food intake. Pyy knock-out decreased or had no effect on neuropeptide Y expression in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus, and significantly increased proopiomelanocortin expression in this region. Male but not female knock-outs exhibited significantly increased growth hormone-releasing hormone expression in the ventromedial hypothalamus and significantly elevated serum IGF-I and testosterone levels. This sex difference in activation of the hypothalamo–pituitary somatotrophic axis by Pyy ablation may contribute to the resistance of chow-fed male knock-outs to late-onset obesity. Conclusions/interpretation. PYY signalling is important in the regulation of energy balance and glucose homeostasis, possibly via regulation of insulin release. Therefore reduced PYY levels may predispose to the development of obesity, particularly with ageing or under conditions of high-fat feeding

High-resolution, large-scale laboratory measurements of a sandy beach and dynamic cobble berm revetment

AbstractHigh quality laboratory measurements of nearshore waves and morphology change at, or near prototype-scale are essential to support new understanding of coastal processes and enable the development and validation of predictive models. The DynaRev experiment was completed at the GWK large wave flume over 8 weeks during 2017 to investigate the response of a sandy beach to water level rise and varying wave conditions with and without a dynamic cobble berm revetment, as well as the resilience of the revetment itself. A large array of instrumentation was used throughout the experiment to capture: (1) wave transformation from intermediate water depths to the runup limit at high spatio-temporal resolution, (2) beach profile change including wave-by-wave changes in the swash zone, (3) detailed hydro and morphodynamic measurements around a developing and a translating sandbar.</jats:p

Loss of coral reef growth capacity to track future increases in sea level

Water-depths above coral reefs is predicted to increase due to global sea-level rise (SLR). As ecological degradation inhibits the vertical accretion of coral reefs, it is likely that coastal wave exposure will increase but there currently exists a lack of data in projections concerning local rates of reef growth and local SLR. In this study we have aggregated ecological data of more than 200 tropical western Atlantic and Indian Ocean reefs and calculated their vertical growth which we have then compared with recent and projected rates of SLR across different Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios. While many reefs currently show vertical growth that would be sufficient to keep-up with recent historic SLR, future projections under scenario RCP4.5 reveal that without substantial ecological recovery many reefs will not have the capacity to track SLR. Under RCP8.5, we predict that mean water depth will increase by over half a metre by 2100 across the majority of reefs. We found that coral cover strongly predicted whether a reef could track SLR, but that the majority of reefs had coral cover significantly lower than that required to prevent reef submergence. To limit reef submergence, and thus the impacts of waves and storms on adjacent coasts, climate mitigation and local impacts that reduce coral cover (e.g., local pollution and physical damage through development land reclamation) will be necessary

Coastal vulnerability assessment based on video wave run-up observations at a mesotidal, steep-sloped beach

Coastal imagery obtained from a coastal video monitoring station installed at Faro Beach, S. Portugal, was combined with topographic data from 40 surveys to generate a total of 456 timestack images. The timestack images were processed in an open-access, freely available graphical user interface (GUI) software, developed to extract and process time series of the cross-shore position of the swash extrema. The generated dataset of 2% wave run-up exceedence values R 2 was used to form empirical formulas, using as input typical hydrodynamic and coastal morphological parameters, generating a best-fit case RMS error of 0.39 m. The R 2 prediction capacity was improved when the shore-normal wind speed component and/or the tidal elevation η tide were included in the parameterizations, further reducing the RMS errors to 0.364 m. Introducing the tidal level appeared to allow a more accurate representation of the increased wave energy dissipation during low tides, while the negative trend between R 2 and the shore-normal wind speed component is probably related to the wind effect on wave breaking. The ratio of the infragravity-to-incident frequency energy contributions to the total swash spectra was in general lower than the ones reported in the literature E infra/E inci > 0.8, since low-frequency contributions at the steep, reflective Faro Beach become more significant mainly during storm conditions. An additional parameterization for the total run-up elevation was derived considering only 222 measurements for which η total,2 exceeded 2 m above MSL and the best-fit case resulted in RMS error of 0.41 m. The equation was applied to predict overwash along Faro Beach for four extreme storm scenarios and the predicted overwash beach sections, corresponded to a percentage of the total length ranging from 36% to 75%.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Bound wave release induced by short wave breaking-true or false?

It is widely assumed that incident bound long waves are released during short wave breaking, subsequently propagating to the shore as a free wave. Statements asserting this release are either unattributed, or loosely attributed to Longuet-Higgins and Steward (1962). However, the author is unaware of convincing evidence of such release of bound long waves as a result of short wave breaking, while there appears to be strong evidence to the contrary. The author's interpretation is that Longuet-Higgins and Steward (1962) suggest that the bound wave will decay in amplitude following short wave breaking. This is in agreement with a number of author's date sets and some data from other recent data sets, including field observations of strong nearshore dissipation of long waves. A surf beat similarity parameter is also suggested, which distinguishes different regimes of surf beat generation

Separation of incident and reflected waves over sloping bathymetry

An existing 2D method for separating incident and reflected waves over a horizontal bed [Frigaard, P., Brorsen, M., 1995. A time domain method for separating incident and reflected irregular waves. Coastal Eng., 24, 205-215.] is modified to account for normally incident linear waves propagating over a bed with arbitrary 2D bathymetry. Linear shoaling is used to determine the amplitude and phase change between two measurement positions; thereafter the existing technique can be applied. Comparisons between the existing and modified methods are made using numerically simulated data. Errors in the reflection coefficient are found to be small for large reflection coefficients, but may become large if reflection is low. However, if an accurate assessment of the amplitude of the incident and reflected wave trains is required, the bathymetry must be accounted for in order to avoid significant errors (up to 90% for cases considered). (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

Numerical-Calculations of Large Transient Water-Waves

This paper concerns the description of a two-dimensional irregular sea state in which a large transient wave is generated through the constructive interference (or focusing) of the component waves. A numerical model is presented and comparisons are made with recent laboratory data. This includes measurements of the horizontal kinematics within the crest to trough region. The proposed solution is based upon a Fourier series expansion in space and time, in which the amplitude of the individual harmonics are determined by a least squares fit to the non-linear free surface boundary conditions. This approach allows for a realistic mix of free waves (with differing phase velocities) and their associated bound waves. The solution, which is not assumed to be either locally or globally steady, can be used to predict the kinematics beneath a recorded (or predicted) water surface elevation. The numerical results are in excellent agreement with the laboratory data, and the solution is robust in the sense that convergence is always achieved from simple initial conditions. The proposed model is not computationally intensive and may thus be suitable for design calculations