SPECTRAL WAVE ATTENUATION BY BOTTOM FRICTION: THEORY

Abstract

Based on the linearized form of the boundary layer equations and a simple eddy viscosity formulation of shear stress, the turbulent bottom boundary layer flow is obtained for a wave motion specified by its directional spectrum. Closure is obtained by requiring the solution to reduce, in the limit, to that of a simple harmonic wave. The resulting dissipation is obtained in spectral form with a single friction factor determined from knowledge of the bottom roughness and an equivalent monochromatic wave having the same root-mean-square near-bottom orbital velocity and excursion amplitude as the specified wave spectrum. The total spectral dissipation rate is obtained by integration and compared with the average dissipation obtained from a model considering the statistics of individual waves defined by their maximum orbital velocity and zero-crossing period. The agreement between the two different evaluations of total spectral dissipation supports the validity of the spectral dissipation model.