Propagation of Long Waves onto Shelf

Abstract

The process of reflection, transmission, and propagation of long waves past a step and onto a horizontal shelf is examined analytically and experimentally using solitary waves. It is found that reflection can be described well by a linear theory for relatively small incident waves and/or relative depths, but nonlinear effects become important as wave heights and relative depths increase. A nonlinear analytical approach must be used to evaluate the transmission process onto the shelf, except for small‐amplitude waves. Although the propagation of the waves on the shelf can be treated linearly close to the step, nonlinear effects soon become important and eventually, in the far field, dispersion also becomes important.