Physical modeling of sand-filled geosystems for coastal protection

Abstract

Unidirectional irregular waves of varying significant wave-height and peak period but with aconstant spectral shape (JONSWAP spectrum, =3.3) were generated over a sandy 3:20 sloped planebeach to investigate scour fronting a dune erosion control system constructed from geotextiles, slopeinclined at 45º. Both passive (i.e., three dune erosion control systems with two configurations) and active(i.e., one nearshore submerged structure with four configurations) structures are investigated. A twodimensionalphysical movable-bed model simulating the prototype dune-beach systems of Estela, locatedalong the NW Portuguese coast, is employed in this study. The paper presents a brief characterization ofthe prototype conditions and discusses requirements and limitations on the choice of model scale for thewaves, the sediments, and the geotextile materials.