theory correctly predicted the disintegration of the solitary wave and 

 phase of its second peak which was of main interest. Madsen and Mel numer- 

 ically solved the characteristic form of the equations by the method of 

 characteristics. 



Abbott, Petersen, and Skovgaard (1978) have published the most exten- 

 sive engineering test results for the Boussinesq theory to date. Figure 

 84 presents their comparison of the theory (System 21 Mark 8, diamond) 

 against experiments made by the CERC in their large, outdoor wave tank 

 (Madsen, Mei, and Savage 1970). 72 The tank is 194 meters long, 6.1 meters 

 deep and 4.6 meters wide. Four second periodic waves with initial height 

 of 0.2 meter were observed shoaling on a 1:15 slope. Agreement was said 

 to be within 5 percent in elevation, over the whole test range. 



CERC Experiments 

 Cres( o- -o 

 Trough «- « 



^ Wave Height 



I System 21 



Mark 8 ♦ 



Figure 84. Comparison of numerical computation of shoaling waves obtained 

 using Boussinesq theory and CERC experimental results (after 

 Abbott, et al., 1978) . 



''^MADSEN, MEI, and SAVAGE, op. oit . 



212 



