Hydraulic Experiments for Wave Transformation over a Submerged Elliptic Shoal

Abstract

Hydraulic experiments were performed to investigate wave transformation by applying regular and unidirectional irregular waves to wave-propagation process over a submerged elliptic shoal. Under the condition that wave breaking did not occur at the center of the shoal, a wave caustic was observed at the lee side of the shoal and the wave heights of the regular waves were measured to be higher than those of the unidirectional irregular waves. Under the breaking condition, the wave heights measured at the center of the shoal were low, but were high at the lateral sides. For the breaking condition, unlike the nonbreaking condition, the wave heights of the unidirectional irregular waves were measured to be higher than those of the regular waves. It was verified that wave-breaking-induced currents affect the refraction and diffraction of waves in this study.