Modélisation numérique de l'évolution des profils de plages sableuses dominées par l'action de la houle

摘要

Sandbars are ubiquitous patterns along wave-dominated sandy coastlines and are key elementsin the global evolution of beaches. Cross-shore sandbar migrations are the result of the permanentimbalance between sediment flux driven by wave non-linearity and mean return current. In this thesis,we developed a new process-based beach profile model integrating the recent scientific advancesin term of hydrodynamics and sediment transport developed for beach morphodynamics. The lowcomputing time allows for long-term morphodynamic simulations (O months/years) of natural beachprofiles of diverse characteristics (beach slope, sediment grain size or type of wave breaking). Modelvalidations on several data sets, encompassing natural and experimental beach profile evolutions,highlight the respective contribution of the main hydrodynamic and sediment transport processesinvolved in specific cross-shore sandbar evolution relative to various wave conditions. Finally, all thecross-shore physical processes were integrated in a 2DH morphodynamic model, resulting for the firsttime in the simulation of a quasi-complete down state sequence showing alongshore bar generationwith subsequent spontaneous formation of transverse bar and rip morphology. These very encouragingresults pave the way for using this model to simulate 3-Dimensional evolutions of natural beachesforced by irregular wave conditions