Cress Help - Wind waves and swell - Waves near the shore - Refraction, energy decay and longshore currents - A18.2

Longshore current by breaking waves

Flow caused by breaking waves on the coast:

in which:

Hsb: significant wave height on breaking [m]
hb: depth at which the waves break [m]
ub: velocity over the bottom at right angles to the coast [m/s]
u//: velocity parallel to the coast on the breaker line, the average flow velocity of the longshore/ longitudinal flow [m/s]
βb: direction of propagation of the waves on the breaker line [°]
Angle between the wave direction and the normal to the breaker line
(0° < βb < 90°).

Diagram showing basic principle: