Swash Overtopping and Sediment Transport - Application to Bermed Beaches and Lagoon Entrances

This paper presents new experimental data on swash overtopping and sediment overwash on a truncated laboratory scale beach. The experiments were designed to allow direct measurement of total uprush sediment transport rate past a fixed section of beach. The overtopping data are compared to an existing analytical solution and predictions based on a recently developed numerical model, and show good agreement with the latter. The improvement is a result of more realistic predictions of the flow depth in the swash zone by the numerical model. Subsequently, the model is extended to enable predictions of sediment overwash using well accepted sediment transport equations. Model predictions using standard coefficients are in good agreement with the data. The model performance suggests it may be applicable for modelling the accretion of berms on natural beaches, a process which requires overtopping and sediment transport above the existing berm crest.