Linking the Surf Zone and Inner Shelf: Cross-shore Transportation Mechanisms

摘要

The long-term goals are to understand surf zone processes, in particular cross-shore exchange related to rip current systems through field observations and numerical modeling. Rip currents occur commonly on most beaches and dominate many. It is recognized that beaches with straight and parallel contours are not a stable morphologic configuration, whereas more complex beaches, which support the existence of rip current morphology, are stable and more common. The research objectives of the proposed work are two- fold. The first is associated with obtaining new observations of the cross- shore exchange between the surf zone and the inner shelf that utilize a suite of in situ and Lagrangian measurement systems. The second applies a numerical model (Delft3D) to evaluate the mechanisms responsible for the cross-shore exchange and relate the complex flow dynamics of the rip current system and its interaction with the surface wave field and bottom topography to the observations.