reflected waves. The SUPERTANK project was conducted in this facility. 

 The wave channel is enclosed in a 37,500-ft 2 (3,480-m 2 ) building. An elevat- 

 ed control room with an area of 1,875 ft 2 (174 m 2 ) overlooks the wave chan- 

 nel, providing an environmental enclosure for the wave generator controller 

 and digital data acquisition system. 



Objectives 



The WRL was selected for these experiments because of the large size of 

 the two-dimensional wave channel and the ability to provide a range of mono- 

 chromatic and random wave conditions with active reflected-wave absorption. 

 Specific objectives included the following: 



a. Provide a wave and sediment environment at prototype scale. 



b. Provide computer software to reproduce simple periodic and random 

 breaking waves in shallow-water wave environments. 



c. Maximize absorption of beach-reflected waves at the wave board. 



d. Digitally acquire 64 channels of wave profile, water particle velocity, 

 and pore pressure measurements synchronously with co-existing per- 

 sonal computer- (PC-) driven data acquisition systems. 



e. Facilitate beach profile surveys, offshore hydrodynamic measure- 

 ments, and nearshore sediment concentration measurements with sup- 

 port carriages. 



/. Provide a platform for other measurement systems deployed at 

 SUPERTANK. 



Scope 



This chapter describes the equipment and procedures used to provide the 

 wave and sediment environment for the SUPERTANK Laboratory Data Col- 

 lection Project. The discussion is ordered as follows: 



a. Two-dimensional wave channel. 



b. Wave generator. 



c. Data acquisition system. 



d. Support facilities. 



Equipment associated with each item is described and principles of operation 

 are discussed. Data analysis is described in those chapters specifically identi- 



Chapter 1 3 Wave Generation and Data Collection Systems 



257 



