Two simple theoretical models for teaching wave mechanics in coastal engineering

Waves are an integral component of teaching in coastal engineering. Some aspects of wave theory are however complex and outside the scope of e.g. introductory courses, so that only the results of the theory are used. For other wave effects such as overtopping, no theory exists, and purely empirical formulas are employed. This limits the students’ understanding of the problems. At Southampton University, we developed simple models for wave effects to improve the teaching. The models rely on basic hydraulic engineering principles such as continuity, conservation of energy and momentum, with the condition that the results are reasonably close to those from more complex theories or from experiments. In this article, two such models for the propagation speed of a solitary wave, and for the shallow water breaking criterion, will be presented. The results from both models are surprisingly close to the textbook formulas or values.