A Laboratory Sandbar Evolution under Successive Ends of Breaking Wave Crests and Subsequent Long-Crested Breaking Waves

Choi, J., 2025. A laboratory sandbar evolution under successive ends of breaking wave crests and subsequent long-crested breaking waves. Journal of Coastal Research, 41(3), 496–509. Charlotte (North Carolina), ISSN 0749-0208. A laboratory experiment was performed to observe the evolution of a straight shore-parallel movable sandbar under the influence of a wave sequence with successive ends of breaking wave crests and its subsequent evolution under the influence of long-crested waves. The formation of the rip-current sandbar system was quantitatively measured during its evolution. In addition, a hydrodynamic simulation was performed by using the time-varying measured bathymetries to estimate the forcing (i.e. the cross-sea rip current and the bar-channel rip current) to the morphodynamics of the sandbar. The sandbar evolved into a crescent shape, and the computations highlighted the role of hydraulic forces driving this evolution.