Nonlinear Wave Transformation over Steep Breakwaters

Abstract: Wave shoaling of water waves over mild bottom slopes is well described by linearized theories. However, the analytical treatment of nonlinear wave shoaling subject to rapidly varying bottoms has proven to be elusive in the past decades. As the spatial evolution of the exceedance probability of irregular waves is affected by second-order effects in steepness, the nonlinear shoaling coefficient throughout a symmetrical and steep breakwater is investigated through a stochastic framework. By inverting the effect of slope on normalized wave height distribution, it is possible to obtain a closed-form slope dependence of the nonlinear shoaling coefficient compatible with experiments over steep breakwaters.