Longshore Sediment Transport as a Function of Energy Dissipation

Experiments to measure waves, currents, and sediment transport rate for two breaker types, plunging and spilling, were conducted in a large-scale three-dimensional physical model. It was found that there was a large difference in cross-shore distribution and total sediment transport rate between the two breaker types. Total transport rates compared to existing predictive equations. The equations generally did not predict the data well. With the exception of the Kamphuis (1991) equation, which included a dependence on wave period, the predictive equations did not differentiate between breaker types