Sediment dynamics and scalling laws for propagating waves reaching coastal defenses

Abstract

In this study, the beach profile evolution in front of a seawall was investigated through combining a large scale physical model and a deterministic 2D-vertical cross-shore morphodynamic numerical model. Experiments were conducted under erosive and accretive wave conditions, for two different water levels at the toe of a seawall, affecting the wave-structure interaction and beach profile evolution. The results show the importance of the wave-structure interaction determining the profile evolution. A better agreement was observed between the numerical and physical results when that interaction is considered.