Citation

Iwata N. J. Oceanogr. Soc. Jpn. 1976; 32(1): 1-10.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1976)

DOI

10.1007/BF02107651

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Mass, momentum and energy conservation laws, including the radiation stress, are used to derive an equation of the eigenvalues of rip current spacing. A coastal region with linear bottom slope is divided into two parts: Offshore region and surfzone separated by the breaker line. Wave set-up, wave energy and mean current are assumed to be composed of basic state, which is a function of the distance from the coast to offshore only, and of superposed two-dimensional perturbations. In the case of normal incidence of waves, basic steady current system vanishes and perturbations are found to be of cellular shape. According to the boundary conditions at the coast, stream function of perturbed motion in the surfzone can be represented by the confluent hypergeometric function, while in the offshore zone it is approximated by the modified Bessel function. Interpolation of the stream functions in the surf and offshore regions enables us to obtain a characteristic relation which gives the eigenvalues of nondimensional alongshore spacing of rip current system as a function of a parameter determined by the bottom friction coefficient, width of the surfzone and breaker height.

Keywords: Drowning; Drowning Prevention; Water Safety

Language: en