Research Summaries

Back Collaborative Research: Observations and Predictions of Sand Grain Size Variability and Morphodynamics on Beaches

Fiscal Year 2010
Division Graduate School of Engineering & Applied Science
Department Oceanography
Investigator(s) MacMahan, James H.
Sponsor National Science Foundation (NSF)
Summary The specific aims of this study are: 1) To analyze grain size data from four recent field experiments on beaches incised by rip channels for coherent spatial and temporal variations in bathymetric and grain size maps and to relate the variations to changes in wave forcing and tide levels. 2) To perform a new field experiment to examine the importance of stratigraphy with a newly developed imaging techniques for measuring grain size below the bed surface. 3) To use the numerical, physics-based, process models to predict beach morphodynamics both with and without varying grain sizes, to better understand and improve the physics in the models based on comparisons with observations, and to assess the effects of varying grain size on the response of morphological systems.
Keywords
Publications Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal
Data Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal