Response of wave-dominated and mixed-energy barriers to storms

EPSRC funded EP/I035390/1 The full text is under embargo until 15.05.15

Subsurface processes generated by bore-driven swash on coarse-grained beaches

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Morphodynamic variability of high-energy macrotidal beaches, Cornwall, UK

The full text is under embargo until 01.04.16

Controls on macrotidal rip current circulation and hazard

EPSRC funded. NERC - RNLI partnership grant NE/H004262/1, Dynamics of Rip Currents and Implications for Beach Safety. The full text is under embargo until 01.06.15. NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in <Geomorphology. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Geomorphology, [VOl 214, (01.06.14)] DOI 10.1016/j.geomorph.2014.02.00

Sediment transport dynamics in the swash zone under large-scale laboratory conditions

A laboratory experiment was carried out to study sediment transport dynamics occurring in the swash zone of a coarse-sandy beach built in a large-scale wave flume. Hydro- and morpho-dynamic as well as sediment transport data were collected using sensors mounted on a scaffold rig deployed in the lower swash zone close to the moving bed. The high resolution of near-bed data permitted quantitative evaluation of suspended and sheet flow contributions to the total sediment transport. Although sheet flow sediment fluxes were higher than suspended fluxes, the vertically integrated suspended sediment load overcame the sheet flow load during uprush and it was on the same order of magnitude during backwash. The observed cumulative sediment transport was generally larger than the morphological changes occurring shoreward of the rig location implying either an underestimation of the offshore sediment transport or an overestimation of the onshore fluxes obtained from concentration and velocity profile data. Low correlations were found between net swash profile changes and runup parameters suggesting that local hydrodynamic parameters provide little or no predictability of accretion and erosion of an upper beach which is near equilibrium. The balance between erosion and deposition induced by individual swash events brought a dynamic equilibrium with small differences between the profiles measured at the start and at the end of the run