Prediction of Cross-Shore Beach Profile Evolution in the Vicinity of Seawalls

Although there exist advanced models which predict to beach profile for natural beaches, the behavior of the beaches in front of seawalls still suffers from the lack of appropriate theoretical models and sufficient measured data. Following the results obtained from the measurements, a beach profile evolution model is developed, using the measured probability distribution of the near-bed horizontal velocities as input, to predict the short-term bed level changes in the vicinity of e partially reflective seawall. The present model introduces a new approach in which based on integrating the probability density functions of the near-bed horizontal velocities, the sediment displacements and consequently bed level changes are calculated in front of a partially reflective structure. The results obtained from the model and comparison with the experiments are promising and encouraging for further developments of the proposed model.