Estimating Wave Heights from Pressure Measured in Sand Bed

Abstract

Comparison of predicted with observed attenuation of pressure fluctuations shows that wave heights can be estimated with observations from a pressure sensor that is buried a known depth in fine sand. The attenuation of pressure fluctuations within the sand bed under unbroken shoaling waves, bores in the surf zone, and swash near the shoreline was measured with vertical stacks of buried pressure sensors. The attenuation increased with increasing frequency and depth below the bed surface, consistent with previous observations under nonbreaking waves in deeper water and with model predictions based on poro-elastic theory. In the limit of an infinitely deep soil skeleton that is much more compressible than the pore fluid, the predicted pressure fluctuations decrease exponentially with increasing burial depth, and the attenuation is independent of the sediment properties. For the fine-grained sand beds considered here, this exponential limit accurately predicts the observed attenuation.