Thesis (MScEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: For the safekeeping or harbouring of small craft, whether for leisure or commercial use, a tranquil basin is the principle requirement in designing a functional harbour facility. Waves transmitted through the perimeter structures of a marina result in agitation of the basin and thereby a reduction in tranquillity. Similarly, waves reflected off the perimeter structures that line entrance channels could result in difficulty when manoeuvring through the entrance channel water areas. An alternative to the conventional breakwater becomes a necessity when the conventional mass-filled or caisson breakwaters are not feasible in technical or financial terms. One of the alternative options could be to consider a piled row breakwater. In broad terms, this consists of closely spaced piles that attenuate wave energy whilst not forming an impermeable barrier, allowing for currents and sediment to pass through. When comparing the different options for creating a piled row breakwater the quantity of material used to achieve a desired level of wave dissipation could be the most important aspect in considering possible alternatives, as this would relate directly to construction costs and time when considering implementation. A literature review revealed multiple references to theories that predicted the transmitted and reflected waves for various breakwater porosities and wave conditions. However, there is limited coverage in literature enabling prospective designers. For example, literature describing the applicable ranges of shape configurations that one should start off with when developing concepts is not readily available. This thesis study used physical modelling to compare the wave transmission properties of breakwaters comprised of three different piled element shapes, namely round, square and diagonal square piles. The pile element shapes are compared for varying porosity values over a range of input wave parameters. A comparison of the transmission incurred by these configurations with previous work is presented and it was found that the physical model experiment closely simulated the predicted values. The tests were scaled from actual conditions in possible marina locations and therefore the performance criteria measured could be applied in reverse to potential site locations. From analysis of the physical model results, it was clear that the highest energy loss was found, in general, to occur with low porosities (below 10%), as could be expected. For a fixed screen configuration in terms of pile element shape and porosity, the performance is heavily dependent on wave steepness, the steeper waves incurring a lower transmission coefficient than the less steep waves. For a given porosity, circular piles performed the best (transmit the least) followed by square piles and then diagonal square. When comparing the material used, diagonal square piles yielded better performing breakwaters due to the expanded cross section gained in elevation. The work has provided useful insight into the performance of piled row breakwaters in restricting transmission of wave energy. Design guidance has been provided when considering the parameters for deriving conceptual layouts for piled row breakwater structures. Recommendations were put forward for further work in this field, including potential study areas, data gathering, and study methods, as well as more applied uses of piles, for example in combination with other elements in a marina. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: die veilige bewaring van klein vaartuie, hetsy vir ontspanning of kommersiële gebruik, is die hoofvereiste in die ontwerp van 'n funksionele hawe fasiliteit dat die beskermde hawegebied ‘n rustende water oppervlak sal moet handhaaf. Golwe wat oorgedra word deur die omtrek golfbrekers van ‘n hawe deur middel van transmissie veroorsaak oppervlak versteurings in die hawe bak en dus ook ongewensde versteurings in die vasmeer kondisies. Op ‘n soortgelyke wyse, veroorsaak golwe wat gereflekteer word vanaf die toegangs kanaal golfbrekers problematiese kondisies vir die navigeer van bote deur die kanaal. Die behoefte aan 'n golfbreker alternatief vir die konvensionele oplossing word genoodsaak wanneer die konvensionele stortrots of caisson golfbrekers nie haalbaar is nie as gevolg van tegniese of finansiële aspekte (Park et al. 2000). Een van die opsies wat oorweeg kan word as 'n alternatief is ‘n heipaal-ry tipe breekwater. In breë terme, bestaan dit uit naby gespasieërde heipale om golf energie te breek, sonder om ‘n ondeurdringbare versperring te vorm. Wanneer die verskillende opsies vir die skep van 'n heipaal-ry tipe breekwater vergelyk word, kan die hoeveelheid konstruksie materiaal benodig per opsie die belangrikste vergelykende parameter word. Die rede hiervoor is die direkte verwantskap aan konstruksie kostes sowel as tyd aspekte wat gepaardgaan met die konstruksie materiaal hoeveelhede. Vanuit die literatuurstudie is verskeie verwysings geïdentifiseer waarin vorige teorieë oor oordrag en refleksie van golwe evalueer word vir wisselende porositeit waardes en intree golf waardes. Daar is egter 'n beperkte dekking in die literatuur wat ontwerps-riglyne betref. Byvoorbeeld, die toepaslike omvang van die vorm konfigurasies wat oorweeg moet word wanneer konsep ontwerp gedoen word, is nie geredelik beskikbaar nie. Hierdie tesis vergelyk, deur middel van fisiese skaal model toetse, drie heipaal-ry element vorms, naamlik ronde, vierkantige en diagonal geroteerde vierkante vir verskillende porositeit waardes oor 'n verskeidenheid van golf inset parameters. 'n Vergelyking is getref tussen die toetsdata en vorige werk en daar is bevind dat die fisiese model eksperiment die voorspelde waades uit die literatuur redelik akkuraat kon naboots. Die toets kondisies is geskaal vanaf werklike moontlike marina terreine en dus kon die toets resultate toegepas word in die ontwerp van potensiële terreine. Vanuit die data-analise, is waargeneem dat die hoogste energie verliese oor die algemeen plaasvind by laer porosititeit waardes (onder 10%) soos wat verwag kon word. Vir 'n gegewe golfbreker opset, in terme van die heipaal element vorm en porositeit, is die verrigting hoogs afhanklik van die golf steilheid, met hoër verrigting by steiler golwe. Vir 'n gegewe porositeit, sal ronde heipaal elemente die beste verrigting gee, gevolg deur vierkante heipale en laastens diagonal geroteerde vierkante. Vir soortgelyke hoeveelheid heipale, sal diagonal geroteerde vierkante beter verrigting lewer moontlik as gevolg van die verlengde deursnit dimensie in vooraansig. Hierdie navorsing het goeie insig verskaf oor golfdeurlaatbaarheid en weerkaatsing van heipaalry breekwaters. Ontwerp riglyne word ook verskaf wat betref die parameters wat gebruik kan word vir die konsep ontwikkelings fase vir heipaal-ry breekwaters. Aanbevelings word gemaak vir verdere navorsingswerk in hierdie veld, insluitend moontlike studie-areas, data insameling, studie metodes, sowel as vir meer toegepasde situasies, byvoorbeeld waar die heipaal elemente in kombinasie met ander marina komponente ontwerp moet word.

The increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere observed in recent decades is causing the acidification of the oceans besides the global warming. The amount of carbon dioxide that crosses the air-sea interface is not well known because this amount depends upon the partial pressure of carbon dioxide and the gas transfer velocity. The gas transfer velocity is a variable based on Fick\'s Law of Diffusion and is normally parametrized as a function of wind velocity at the height of 10 meters. However, the result of this parametrization have errors greater than 100%. Newer parametrization include the effects of temperature, friction velocity and the presence of surface waves. Based on the simplest model of air-sea gas transfer model, the stagnant film theory, this study developed a methodology to improve the knowledge of the relation between the gas transfer velocity and the mean square slope. This variable accounts for the mean curvature of the waves in the surface. The data used was gathered within the scope of the DOGEE project in 2007. In that, a drifting buoy measured several parameters relative to the waves and the gas transfer velocity. The results show that the mean square slope calculated with waves whose wavenumber is between 40 and 50 radians per meter has the lowest root mean square errors of the regression between the mean square slope and the gas transfer velocity. This result showed to be very consistent when applied to the QuikSCAT scatterometer data and compared to a recent published study. / O aumento da concentração de dióxido de carbono na atmosfera observado nas últimas décadas é responsável por alterações climáticas e ambientais em escala global. Uma das consequências desse aumento da concentração de gás carbônico é o aquecimento global. Outra consequência é a acidificação dos oceanos. Isto ocorre devido ao dióxido de carbono atravessar a interface ar-mar e se dissolver no oceano. A quantidade de dióxido de carbono que atravessa a interface ar-mar é um dado não conhecido com precisão devido a esta quantidade depender de uma constante conhecida por velocidade de transferência do gás carbônico. Esta velocidade de transferência é normalmente uma parametrização do transporte turbulento do gás na interface oceano-atmosfera. Como o dado mais comum para essa parametrização é o vento à altura de 10 metros, muitos estudos foram desenvolvidos utilizando esta variável. No entanto, os resultados destas parametrizações possuem erros da ordem de 100%. Este estudo desenvolveu uma metodologia para obter uma melhor estimativa da velocidade de transferência. Para isto, optou-se por relacionar esta variável à inclinação quadrática média (MSS) das ondas. Segundo a literatura científica recente, o MSS é uma variável mais relacionada à transferência gasosa do que o vento a 10 metros de altura. Os resultados mostram que a inclinação quadrática média calculado com números de onda entre 40 e 50 radianos por metro possuem o menor erro no ajuste linear com os dados de velocidade de transferência. Este resultado indica uma mudança da dinâmica da interface nesse intervalo de número de onda. Com isso, um novo ajuste linear entre o MSS e a velocidade de transferência é sugerido como parametrização. A aplicação desta nova parametrização a dados de satélite do tipo escaterômetro mostrou-se consistente quando comparado a um estudo recente relacionando a velocidade de transferência do gás carbônico diretamente a dados do satélite oceanográfico QuikSCAT.

The increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere observed in recent decades is causing the acidification of the oceans besides the global warming. The amount of carbon dioxide that crosses the air-sea interface is not well known because this amount depends upon the partial pressure of carbon dioxide and the gas transfer velocity. The gas transfer velocity is a variable based on Fick\'s Law of Diffusion and is normally parametrized as a function of wind velocity at the height of 10 meters. However, the result of this parametrization have errors greater than 100%. Newer parametrization include the effects of temperature, friction velocity and the presence of surface waves. Based on the simplest model of air-sea gas transfer model, the stagnant film theory, this study developed a methodology to improve the knowledge of the relation between the gas transfer velocity and the mean square slope. This variable accounts for the mean curvature of the waves in the surface. The data used was gathered within the scope of the DOGEE project in 2007. In that, a drifting buoy measured several parameters relative to the waves and the gas transfer velocity. The results show that the mean square slope calculated with waves whose wavenumber is between 40 and 50 radians per meter has the lowest root mean square errors of the regression between the mean square slope and the gas transfer velocity. This result showed to be very consistent when applied to the QuikSCAT scatterometer data and compared to a recent published study. / O aumento da concentração de dióxido de carbono na atmosfera observado nas últimas décadas é responsável por alterações climáticas e ambientais em escala global. Uma das consequências desse aumento da concentração de gás carbônico é o aquecimento global. Outra consequência é a acidificação dos oceanos. Isto ocorre devido ao dióxido de carbono atravessar a interface ar-mar e se dissolver no oceano. A quantidade de dióxido de carbono que atravessa a interface ar-mar é um dado não conhecido com precisão devido a esta quantidade depender de uma constante conhecida por velocidade de transferência do gás carbônico. Esta velocidade de transferência é normalmente uma parametrização do transporte turbulento do gás na interface oceano-atmosfera. Como o dado mais comum para essa parametrização é o vento à altura de 10 metros, muitos estudos foram desenvolvidos utilizando esta variável. No entanto, os resultados destas parametrizações possuem erros da ordem de 100%. Este estudo desenvolveu uma metodologia para obter uma melhor estimativa da velocidade de transferência. Para isto, optou-se por relacionar esta variável à inclinação quadrática média (MSS) das ondas. Segundo a literatura científica recente, o MSS é uma variável mais relacionada à transferência gasosa do que o vento a 10 metros de altura. Os resultados mostram que a inclinação quadrática média calculado com números de onda entre 40 e 50 radianos por metro possuem o menor erro no ajuste linear com os dados de velocidade de transferência. Este resultado indica uma mudança da dinâmica da interface nesse intervalo de número de onda. Com isso, um novo ajuste linear entre o MSS e a velocidade de transferência é sugerido como parametrização. A aplicação desta nova parametrização a dados de satélite do tipo escaterômetro mostrou-se consistente quando comparado a um estudo recente relacionando a velocidade de transferência do gás carbônico diretamente a dados do satélite oceanográfico QuikSCAT.

Les formulations et modèles de vagues stochastiques sont les outils les plus traditionnels pour l’évaluation et la prévision des états de mer. Cependant, la prise en compte de nombreux processus physiques essentiels à l’évolution des vagues reste souvent lacunaire dans ces types d’approches. Une des raisons possible est notamment que peu d’observations viennent documenter ces processus. La dissipation des ondes est ainsi mal quantifiée par les méthodes d'observation traditionnelles dans tout l’éventail des conditions océaniques. Dans ce contexte, le travail présenté dans cette thèse explore plus avant les conditions menant au déferlement à travers la modulation de l'énergie des ondes courtes par de fort courants de marée et par des ondes plus longues.Dans cette étude, nous avons profité des campagnes de mesure BBWAVES, spécialement conçues pour acquérir de la donnée dans des zones d’interactions vagues courants.Ces campagnes ont notamment permis de tester une nouvelle bouée dérivante conçue pour la mesure des vagues dans des zones à forts courants de marées. Grâce à des mesures simultanées en zones de forts courants, il a été possible de mettre en évidence des lacunes dans la modélisation des états de mer, et l’influence vraisemblable des erreurs dans la modélisation atmosphérique pour ces conditions. Cette thèse a également tiré parti d’une campagne de mesure stéréo-vidéo d’états de mer en Mer Noire afin d’étudier différents aspects du déferlement des vagues dans une grande variété de conditions d'état de mer bimodales. Ces mesures ont permis de mettre en évidence une modulation des ondes courtes par des longues et une incidence sur les propriétés de déferlement. / Stochastic wave formulations and models are the most common tools for the assessment and forecast of sea surface conditions. Their ability to account for some of the processes encountered by waves during their evolution remains however a central question. Among other processes, the wave dissipation is for instance still poorly quantified and traditional methods for wave measurements fail to proper insight into its physics in a wide range of conditions. In this context, the work presented in this PhD aims to explore available observation techniques for their application to several quantitative aspects of the dissipation of wave energy, and particularly for short wave modulated by strong tidal currents, for short wave modulated by longer waves. This work takes advantage of the BBWAVES oceanic campaigns, especially planned to explore questions related to wave and current interactions. Data from a large variety of sensors are analyzed. The campaign provides the ground for the test of a new design of drifting buoy aimed at measuring waves in areas of strong tidal current. Its performances are verified and the description it provides of the area is explored. From simultaneous measurements, it was possible to highlight the actual inaccuracies in wave model capabilities as well as the contribution of the error contained in the atmospheric modeling over strong tidal currents to the misevaluation of sea states. This work also used an extensive dataset from a stereo video experiment in the Black Sea to investigate wave breaking in bimodal sea state conditions. These measurements have revealed the influence of long wave modulation over short wave breaking.

As the second largest river in the U.S., the entrance to the Columbia River is home to some of the most extreme wave conditions on the Pacific Coast. Winter storms commonly generate waves 6-8 m in height, which in combination with strong tidal currents, can produce dangerous navigation conditions. To improve understanding of the wave dynamics in this complex setting, the SWAN model is applied; 2 hindcasts are conducted and an operations forecast is developed. The model is forced with offshore wave heights obtained from a buoy located in 134 m water depth (for the hindcasts) and a specialized WaveWatchIII forecast (for the forecast). In both cases tidal currents are obtained from SELFE, a circulation model of the Columbia River. The hindcasts are validated through measurements obtained from an inshore buoy located in 25 m water depth, a 4-week field experiment and remote sensing methods. The model performs best at the location of the buoy, with a normalized root-mean-squared error (NRMSE) of 11%, primarily because it is outside the area of strong tidal currents. Within the river mouth, the model is able to predict the changes in the wave field due to currents, but its performance is limited by errors in velocity estimates and strong shears in the tidal current profile. From the modeling work, it is evident that wave transformations at the mouth of the river are dominated by the tidal currents. The forecast has been operational since August 2011 and provides 45-hours of predictive wave information. In comparison with measured wave heights at the buoy, the forecast performs well, with a NRMSE of 16%. The majority of errors are caused by errors in the input conditions, since they themselves are forecasted. Additional errors arise from phase-resolved properties in the wave field that the model is unable to produce; these errors are also present in the hindcasts. Despite the limitations, this forecast provides valuable information to bar pilots since it includes the effects of the tidal currents. / Graduation date: 2013

Video based remote sensing techniques are well suited to collect spatially resolved wave images in the surf zone with breaking waves and dynamic bathymetric changes. An advanced video-based depth inversion method is developed to remotely survey bathymetry in the surf zone. The present method involves image processing of original wave image sequences, wave property estimation based on linear feature extraction from the processed image sequences, and is combined with a nonlinear depth inversion model. The original wave image sequences are processed through video image frame differencing and directional low-pass filtering schemes to remove wave-breaking-induced foam noise having high frequencies in the surf zone. The features of individual crest trajectories are extracted from the processed and rectified image sequences, i.e. processed image cross-shore timestacks, by tracking pixels of high intensity within an interrogation window of a Radon-transform-based line-detection algorithm. The wave celerity is computed using space-time information of the extracted trajectories of individual wave crests in the cross-shore timestack domain. The presented retrieval of nearshore bathymetry from video image sequences is based on a nonlinear depth inversion using the nonlinear shallow water wave theory. The nonlinear wave amplitude dispersion effects at the breaker points are determined by combining the nonlinear shallow water celerity equation with a wave breaker criterion, thereby computing water depths iteratively from the celerity measured from the video data. The water depths estimated at the breaker points present initial bathymetric anchor points. Bathymetric profiles in the surf zone are inverted by calculating wave heights dissipated after wave breaking with a wave dissipation model and wave heights shoaled before wave breaking with a wave shoaling model. The continuous wave amplitude dispersion effects are subtracted from the measured celerity profiles, resulting in nearshore bathymetric profiles. The nonlinear depth inversion derived bathymetric estimates from nearshore imagery match the measured values with a biased mean depth error of about +0.06m in the depth range of 0.1 to 3m. In addition, the wave height estimates by the depth inversion model are comparable to the in-situ measured wave heights with a biased mean wave height error of about +0.14m. The present depth inversion method based on optical remote-sensing supports coastal management, navigation, and amphibious operations.

[Truncated abstract] The study of eastern ocean boundary currents has been principally restricted to the Pacific and Atlantic ocean regions. The traditional view of the circulation near eastern ocean boundaries is that upwelling-favourable winds force surface waters offshore, leading to upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich subsurface water at the coast, the formation and offshore advection of a coastal front, and the generation of alongshore currents, generally having an equatorward surface flow and a poleward undercurrent. The eastern ocean boundary system of the southern Indian Ocean, off the west coast of Australia, is unique compared with these regions because a warm, poleward surface flow, known as the Leeuwin Current, dominates the dynamics over the continental shelf. Satellite imagery has shown the Leeuwin Current consists of a complex system of meanders, jet-like streams, and eddies, and has a seasonal and interannual variability. The oceanic circulation of the region between Carnarvon (latitude 25°S) and Jurien Bay (latitude 31°S) was examined using observational and remotely sensed data in conjunction with a detailed numerical modelling study. The model was validated using in situ ADCP and CTD data, and the horizontal eddy viscosity parameterization was tested against field observations. ... The resulting offshore meander grew laterally, shallowed, and closed to form an anticlockwise eddy to the original clockwise eddy’s south, forming a characteristic LC eddy pair (dipole). The model demonstrated the LC and Leeuwin Undercurrent (LUC) coupling played an important role in the onset of eddies at both sites. When an energy diagnostic scheme was used, the dominant instability process linked to the anticlockwise eddy’s development at site 1 was a mixed mode barotropic and baroclinic instability. The baroclinic instability’s source was the available potential energy stored within the mean lateral density gradient. The LC’s meandering southerly flow interacting with the LUC’s northerly subsurface flow generated the horizontal shear that sourced the barotropic instability. The dominant instability process at site 2 was baroclinic in origin. Possible links between the eddy field dynamics and the shelfslope region’s alongshore topographic variability were considered. The results of a suite of five model runs, differing only in the specification of bottom topography, were contrasted to investigate the effects. Except for the expected alongshore variability, delay in the onset of instabilities, varying growth rates, and some differences in the dominant wavebands’ mesoscale patterns, the overall impression was the response was similar.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Joint Program in Physical Oceanography (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 179-187). / A simple dynamic model is used with various observations to provide an approximate spectral description of low frequency oceanic variability. Such a spectrum has wide application in oceanography, including the optimal design of observational strategy for the deployment of floats, the study of Lagrangian statistics and the estimate of uncertainty for heat content and mass flux. Analytic formulas for the frequency and wavenumber spectra of any physical variable, and for the cross spectra between any two different variables for each vertical mode of the simple dynamic model are derived. No heat transport exists in the model. No momentum flux exists either if the energy distribution is isotropic. It is found that all model spectra are related to each other through the frequency and wavenumber spectrum of the stream-function for each mode, ... , where ... represent horizontal wavenumbers, w stands for frequency, n is vertical mode number, and ... are latitude and longitude, respectively. Given ... , any model spectrum can be estimated. In this study, an inverse problem is faced: ... is unknown; however, some observational spectra are available. I want to estimate ... if it exists. Estimated spectra of the low frequency variability are derived from various measurements: (i) The vertical structure of and kinetic energy and potential energy is inferred from current meter and temperature mooring measurements, respectively. (ii) Satellite altimetry measurements produce the geographic distributions of surface kinetic energy magnitude and the frequency and wavenumber spectra of sea surface height. (iii) XBT measurements yield the temperature wavenumber spectra and their depth dependence. (v) Current meter and temperature mooring measurements provide the frequency spectra of horizontal velocities and temperature. It is found that a simple form for ... does exist and an analytical formula for a geographically varying ... is constructed. Only the energy magnitude depends on location. The wavenumber spectral shape, frequency spectral shape and vertical mode structure are universal. This study shows that motion within the large-scale low-frequency spectral band is primarily governed by quasigeostrophic dynamics and all observations can be simplified as a certain function of ... The low frequency variability is a broad-band process and Rossby waves are particular parts of it. Although they are an incomplete description of oceanic variability in the North Pacific, real oceanic motions with energy levels varying from about 10-40% of the total in each frequency band are indistinguishable from the simplest theoretical Rossby wave description. At higher latitudes, as the linear waves slow, they disappear altogether. Non-equatorial latitudes display some energy with frequencies too high for consistency with linear theory; this energy produces a positive bias if a lumped average westward phase speed is computed for all the motions present. / by Xiaoyun Zang. / Ph.D.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Meteorology, 1979. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Science. / Bibliography : leaves 81-83. / by Affonso da Silveira Mascarenhas, Jr. / M.S.