Resumen
The results presented are from a series of experiments of periodic waves approaching breaking on a gently sloping beach. The recorded surface profiles are compared with a cnoidal theory taking into account the effect of the bottom slope. In both theory and experiments a skewness of the profile is observed. A fair agreement is found within certain limits of the wave height to water depth ratio and when the slope is sufficiently gentle. The change in water depth over a wave length must be sufficiently small. The detailed analysis of the surface profiles including the skewness element shows good agreement with the cnoidal theory in cases where the wave height variation is as predicted by cnoidal wave shoaling. The recorded surface profiles together with the recorded phase velocities are further used in computing the wave energy flux based on the theoretical relations from linear and cnoidal theories. Reasonable constancy is observed over the whole length covered by the experiments. Finally the recorded wave set-down is compared with the results of linear and cnoidal theories. When approaching breaking neither of the theories can apparently predict the recorded water level changes.
Authors retain copyright and grant the Proceedings right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this Proceedings.