Keywords
ray theory
breaking
vorticity generation
Nonlinear Shallow Water Equations
How to Cite
Abstract
Wave breaking over submerged topographic obstacles leads to vorticity generation and, at times, to the generation of strong offshore-directed rip currents. The generation of finite-length breakers may also be induced by the positive interaction of wave trains propagating to shore with a relative angle. Such an interaction gives rise to a short-crested system, this, in turn, generating both breakers of finite crossflow length and an intense associated vorticity. We here analyze such a vorticity generation mechanism specifically focusing on the location where wave breaking occurs. To this purpose we use both a simple theoretical approach, based on the well-known theory of wave ray propagation, and ad-hoc numerical simulations, by means of a NSWE (Nonlinear Shallow Water Equations) solver. A fair comparison between such preliminary theoretical and numerical results suggests that the present work can be used as the basis for future analyses of vorticity generation by cross seas.References
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