There are only a few detailed measurements of the cross-shore variation in the net sediment transport and beach evolution for single or multiple swash events, and no data showing the influence of long waves and wave groups on swash zone morphology. Novel laboratory experiments and numerical modeling have been performed to study the influence of long waves and bichromatic wave groups on sediment transport and beach morphodynamics in the swash zone. Due to complex processes, difficulties in measuring, and very significant difficulties in isolating the morphodynamic processes induced by long waves and wave groups on natural beaches, a laboratory study was designed to measure in very high detail the bathymetric evolution of model sand beaches under monochromatic waves, long wave and short wave composites (free long waves), and bichromatic wave groups (forced long waves). Net sediment transport, Q(x), and beach morphology changes under the monochromatic waves were analyzed and compared to conditions with and without the free long waves, and then compared with the bichromatic wave groups. A range of wave conditions, e.g., high energy, moderate energy, and low energy waves, were used to obtain beach evolution ranging from accretionary to erosive, and including intermediate beach states. Hydrodynamics parameters, e.g., instantaneous water depths, wave amplitudes, run-up and rundown, were also measured to study and test a sediment transport model for the swash zone, based on modifying the energetic-bedload based sediment transport equations with suspended sediment. The experimental data clearly demonstrate that for the monochromatic wave conditions, beach evolution develops erosion for high steepness waves and accretion for lower steepness waves. The model beach profile evolutions are similar to natural beaches, and form and develop bars and berms over time. Adding a free long wave to the short wave in the composite wave results in changes to the overall trend of erosion/accretion of the beach profile, but the net transport pattern does not change significantly. The short wave strongly dominates beach behavior and the net transport rate, instead of the free long wave in the composite wave. The free long wave, however, carries more water and sediment onshore, leading to an increase in shoreline motion and wave run-up further landward. The long wave influences the structure and position of the swash bar/berm, which generally tends to move onshore and forms a larger swash bar/berm for higher long wave amplitudes. The free long wave also increases overall onshore sediment transport, and reduces offshore transport for erosive conditions. The long wave tends to protect the beach face and enhances onshore transport for accretive conditions, especially in the swash zone. In contrast, for bichromatic wave groups having the same mean energy flux as their corresponding monochromatic wave, the influence on sediment transports is generally offshore in both the surf and swash zone instead of onshore. The swash berm is, however, formed further landward compared with the berm of the corresponding monochromatic wave. The sediment transport patterns (erosion or accretion) generated by the bichromatic wave group or corresponding monochromatic wave are similar, but differ in magnitude. The numerical model, starting in the inner surf zone to reduce the effect of poor breaker description in the non-linear shallow water equations, can produce a good match between observed data and the modeled hydrodynamics parameters in the SZ. The sediment transport model shows the important role of suspended sediment in the swash zone. In contrast with the observed data, energetic-based bed-load models predict offshore sediment transport for most wave conditions because of negative skewness. The modified sediment transport model, with added suspended sediment terms and optimized coefficients, produces a good match between model results and observed data for each wave condition, especially for low frequency monochromatic waves. The optimized coefficient set corresponding to particular monochromatic wave conditions can be used to predict the net sediment transport quite well for some composite wave conditions. Overall, the same optimized coefficient sets can be applied to predict the correct overall trend of net transport for most composite wave conditions. However, the predicted net transport for the bichromatic wave groups does not match well with the overall net transport patterns. There is no set of single transport coefficients that can be used to predict sediment transport for all wave conditions. This suggests that the present sediment transport models cannot predict evolution correctly, even for conditions which represent only perturbation from those for which they were calibrated.

There are only a few detailed measurements of the cross-shore variation in the net sediment transport and beach evolution for single or multiple swash events, and no data showing the influence of long waves and wave groups on swash zone morphology. Novel laboratory experiments and numerical modeling have been performed to study the influence of long waves and bichromatic wave groups on sediment transport and beach morphodynamics in the swash zone. Due to complex processes, difficulties in measuring, and very significant difficulties in isolating the morphodynamic processes induced by long waves and wave groups on natural beaches, a laboratory study was designed to measure in very high detail the bathymetric evolution of model sand beaches under monochromatic waves, long wave and short wave composites (free long waves), and bichromatic wave groups (forced long waves). Net sediment transport, Q(x), and beach morphology changes under the monochromatic waves were analyzed and compared to conditions with and without the free long waves, and then compared with the bichromatic wave groups. A range of wave conditions, e.g., high energy, moderate energy, and low energy waves, were used to obtain beach evolution ranging from accretionary to erosive, and including intermediate beach states. Hydrodynamics parameters, e.g., instantaneous water depths, wave amplitudes, run-up and rundown, were also measured to study and test a sediment transport model for the swash zone, based on modifying the energetic-bedload based sediment transport equations with suspended sediment. The experimental data clearly demonstrate that for the monochromatic wave conditions, beach evolution develops erosion for high steepness waves and accretion for lower steepness waves. The model beach profile evolutions are similar to natural beaches, and form and develop bars and berms over time. Adding a free long wave to the short wave in the composite wave results in changes to the overall trend of erosion/accretion of the beach profile, but the net transport pattern does not change significantly. The short wave strongly dominates beach behavior and the net transport rate, instead of the free long wave in the composite wave. The free long wave, however, carries more water and sediment onshore, leading to an increase in shoreline motion and wave run-up further landward. The long wave influences the structure and position of the swash bar/berm, which generally tends to move onshore and forms a larger swash bar/berm for higher long wave amplitudes. The free long wave also increases overall onshore sediment transport, and reduces offshore transport for erosive conditions. The long wave tends to protect the beach face and enhances onshore transport for accretive conditions, especially in the swash zone. In contrast, for bichromatic wave groups having the same mean energy flux as their corresponding monochromatic wave, the influence on sediment transports is generally offshore in both the surf and swash zone instead of onshore. The swash berm is, however, formed further landward compared with the berm of the corresponding monochromatic wave. The sediment transport patterns (erosion or accretion) generated by the bichromatic wave group or corresponding monochromatic wave are similar, but differ in magnitude. The numerical model, starting in the inner surf zone to reduce the effect of poor breaker description in the non-linear shallow water equations, can produce a good match between observed data and the modeled hydrodynamics parameters in the SZ. The sediment transport model shows the important role of suspended sediment in the swash zone. In contrast with the observed data, energetic-based bed-load models predict offshore sediment transport for most wave conditions because of negative skewness. The modified sediment transport model, with added suspended sediment terms and optimized coefficients, produces a good match between model results and observed data for each wave condition, especially for low frequency monochromatic waves. The optimized coefficient set corresponding to particular monochromatic wave conditions can be used to predict the net sediment transport quite well for some composite wave conditions. Overall, the same optimized coefficient sets can be applied to predict the correct overall trend of net transport for most composite wave conditions. However, the predicted net transport for the bichromatic wave groups does not match well with the overall net transport patterns. There is no set of single transport coefficients that can be used to predict sediment transport for all wave conditions. This suggests that the present sediment transport models cannot predict evolution correctly, even for conditions which represent only perturbation from those for which they were calibrated.

New laboratory data are presented on the influence of long waves on sediment transport in the surf zone. Due to the very significant difficulties in isolating the morphodynamic processes induced by long waves in field conditions, the laboratory study was designed practically to measure the net sediment transport rates, and gradients in sediment transport, arising from the interaction between long waves and short waves in the surf zone. The bathymetric evolution of model sand beaches, with dB50B = 0.2 mm, was observed under monochromatic short waves, long-wave short-wave combinations (free long waves), and bichromatic wave groups (forced long waves). The beach profile change and net cross-shore transport rates, Q(x), were extracted and compared for conditions with and without long waves. The experiments include a range of wave conditions, e.g. high-energy, moderate-energy, low-energy waves, and the beaches evolve to form accretionary, erosive, and intermediate beach states. Hydrodynamic measurements were made to identify the influence of long waves on short waves and to determine the correlation between surf zone bars and standing long waves. A shallow water wave model was modified for this application to surf zone morphodynamics and compared to both hydrodynamics and measured sediment transport. This data clearly demonstrate that free large-amplitude long waves influence surf zone morphodynamics not only under accretive conditions, by promoting onshore sediment transport, but also under erosive conditions, by decreasing offshore transport. For the dominant berm-bar feature, the strong surf beat induces offshore transport in the inner surf zone and onshore transport around the outer surf zone and throughout the shoaling zone. In contrast, forced (bound) long waves and wave groups correlated with bichromatic short wave groups play a pronounced role under erosive conditions, increasing offshore sediment transport across the whole beach profile. For accretionary conditions, only a very narrowbanded wave group promotes onshore sediment transport across the whole beach profile, while broader banded wave groups again promote offshore transport. The modified numerical model of Li et al. (2002) provides good predictions of the standing long wave pattern for the long-wave short-wave combinations, but generally poor agreement for the bichromatic wave groups. Similarly, this model performs poorly in terms of predicting the net sediment transport for all waves, even after optimising the sediment transport coefficients. This is because the model cannot predict the correct hydrodynamics around the breakpoint position and does not correctly represent net sediment transport mechanics. Overall, the model does not correctly predict the trends in beach profile evolution induced by the long waves and wave groups. Further, there is little evidence that the long wave nodal structure plays a dominant role. The influence of the free long waves and wave groups is consistent with the concept of the Gourlay parameter, H/wBsBT, as a dominant parameter controlling net erosion or accretion. Free long waves tend to reduce H/wBsBT, promoting accretion, while wave groups tend to increase H/wBsBT, promoting erosion.

La plupart des côtes de la Terre reculent et 80% sont rocheuses. La prévision du recul des falaises littorales est primordiale afin d’anticiper les risques futurs pour les aménagements littoraux. Cependant, la compréhension de ce recul est difficile car de nombreux paramètres le contrôlent. Des expériences en canal à houle de petite échelle ont été effectuées où nous avons mis en place un massif de sable humide soumis à l’attaque des vagues par sapement. Le but est de comprendre comment l’effet des vagues contrôle l’érosion des falaises. La technique de mesure par ombroscopie a été employée et nous a permis de détecter la surface du sable et la surface libre en fonction du temps. Nous avons ainsi analysé l’influence du forçage des vagues (F, ξ) (où F est le flux d’énergie des vagues incidentes au large et ξ est le paramètre de similitude de “surf”) sur la vitesse de recul de la falaise et sur la profondeur des évènements d’effondrement. La vitesse de recul de la falaise augmente linéairement avec le flux d’énergie F. Les débris de falaise érodés changent la morphologie du fond, les types de morphologie du fond dépendent fortement du paramètre de similitude de “surf” au déferlement, ou encore du paramètre de Dean Ω. Des profils du fond instationnaires présentant une oscillation auto-entretenue de la barre sédimentaire ont été observés. Nous avons de plus étudié l’effet de la granulométrie du sable utilisé : pour un sable plus fin, la falaise est plus cohésive et s’effondre au cours d’évènements de plus grande ampleur. Etonnamment, le recul de la falaise est plus important pour du sable fin. Ceci est probablement dû à une modification de la morphologie du fond conduisant à une dissipation de l’énergie des vagues moins importante. Le volume de sable injecté dans le système a finalement été quantifié, la barre sédimentaire a d’abord été prélevée périodiquement et il a été observé que la vitesse de recul de la falaise vr est constante. Puis, la hauteur de falaise a été modifiée, le recul des falaises est plus important pour des petites falaises. Il semblerait que l’instationnarité d’un profil du fond se déclenche à partir d’un volume seuil de sable érodé. / Most of the Earth coasts recedes and 80 % are rocky. Prediction of sea-cliff recession is essential to anticipate future risks for coastal development. However, it is difficult to understand this recession because many parameters control it. In addition, both the space and time scales are too big for the different mechanisms of cliff erosion to be fully analysed. Experiments in a small-scale wave flume were conducted in which a massif made of wet sand is submitted to wave attack. The aim is to understand how cliff erosion is wave-controlled. The technique of shadow graph measurements was used to detect the time evolution of sand and water surfaces. We have analyzed the influence of wave forcing (F, ξ) (where F is the incident offshore wave energy flux and ξ is the surf similarity parameter) on the cliff recession rate and on collapse event size. The cliff recession rate increases linearly with the wave energy flux F. The eroded cliff materials change the bottom morphology ; the types of bottom morphology strongly depend on the surf similarity parameter at the breaker point, or the Dean parameter Ω. Bottom profiles characterized by unsteady self-sustained sandbar oscillation were observed. In addition, we studied how sand granulometry change the system evolution. Finer the sand is, more cohesive is the cliff and bigger are cliff collapses. Contrary to what was expected, cliff recession is more important for a finer sand : this could be due to a more dissipative bottom morphology built by fine sands. The sand volume within the system changes following cliff collapses and a sandbar removal during particular experiments. The cliff recession rate is constant when the sandbar is removed and decreases with cliff height. It seems that the unsteadiness of the bottom profile is activated when the volume of eroded sand exceeds a threshold value.