Measurements and modeling of cross-shore morphodynamics

Measurements and modeling of cross-shore morphodynamics

JPC Eekhout

Twente University: 90 p., 2008

A lot of processes within process-based models, like Unibest-TC, are still not well understood. Consequently, numerous experiments are carried out to get more insight in these processes. As part of the European HYDRALAB-III project, experiments were carried out in the Großen Wellenkanal (GWK) of the Forschungszentrum Küste in Hannover, Germany. Data was obtained from wave heights, flow velocities, sediment concentrations and bed level measurements. Ruessink et al. (2007) stated that the calibration procedure of Unibest-TC focuses on net sediment transport rates only and free model parameters may compensate for missing or incompletely described processes. Therefore, they suggest to collect concentration and velocity profiles under a wide range of natural conditions, and use these data to validate the temporal and spatial variability of the bedload and suspended sediment transport formulations predicted by the present formulations. This resulted in the following research objective: The validation of the cross-shore profile model Unibest-TC using data collected in a full-scale wave flume. The model is validated step-by-step using wave height, velocity, sediment concentration and bed level data.