A simple method to determine breaker height and depth for different deepwater wave height/length ratios and sea floor slopes

摘要

Existing, easily applicable methods to calculate the depth and height of breaking waves are hampered by two obstacles. First, the breaker depth is usually required to compute its height, and vice versa. Second, the equations take into account either the deepwater height to wavelength ratio or the sea floor slope, but not both. A simple iterative procedure is therefore proposed which incorporates both elements. For fully developed waves breaking over a nearly horizontal bottom, the breaker height and depth are also direct functions of the deepwater wavelength.