CONTENTS 



Page 



CONVERSION FACTORS, U.S. CUSTOMARY TO METRIC (SI) 6 



SYMBOLS AND DEFINITIONS 7 



I INTRODUCTION 9 



II NONLINEAR WAVE TRANSFORMATION 9 



1. Nonlinear Wave Shoaling 9 



2. Comparison and Matching Between Various Theories 13 



3. Comparison Between Theory and Experiment 17 



4. Nonlinear Wave Refraction 21 



III BREAKING WAVE CHARACTERISTICS ON A SLOPED PLANE BEACH 22 



1. Review of Previous Work 22 



2. Solution Approach 26 



3. Results 30 



IV SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 36 



LITERATURE CITED 38 



APPENDIX HYPERBOLIC WAVE SHOALING 41 



TABLES 



1 Comparison of measured and predicted breaking wave angles 26 



2 Limit for validity of cnoidal theory for normal incidence 32 



FIGURES 



1 The shoaling coefficient at the third order of approximation 12 



2 The shoaling coefficient at the fifth order of approximation 12 



3 Shoaling coefficient obtained in equating the energy flux between a 



third-order Stokian wave in deep water and cnoidal (hyperbolic) 



wave in shallow water 14 



4 Comparison between shoaling coefficients according to linear 



and cnoidal wave theories 14 



5 Matching Stokesian (third order) and cnoidal wave theory 15 



6 Comparison between Stokesian third order and cnoidal shoaling 



coefficient with experiments 16 



7 Comparison of experimental shoaling coefficients with Stokes third 



order 19 



8 Experimental data for the shoaling coefficient Kg 20 



