Title | Longshore dispersion over a flat beach |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 1982 |
Authors | Ostendorf DW |
Journal | Journal of Geophysical Research |
Volume | 87 |
Start Page | 4241 |
Pagination | 4241-4248 |
Date Published | 05/1982 |
Abstract | We model the longshore dispersion of a passive, conservative pollutant in the surf zone formed by two-dimensional, monochromatic water waves of near-normal incidence breaking over a plane, flat, impermeable beach under presumedly uniform temporal, vertical, and longshore conditions. Such pollutants disperse in a Fickian manner through a plane moving at the areal averaged longshore current speed when the shore-normal concentration variation is small, with a longshore dispersivity reflecting diffusive and advective transport processes. We adopt an existing estimate of the turbulent diffusion and modify an existing longshore current model to derive a theoretical estimate of the longshore dispersivity; we calibrate the simple model with field data, generating accurate and physically plausible results. |
DOI | 10.1029/JC087iC06p04241 |