On the excitation of edge waves on beaches

Abstract

The excitation of standing edge waves of frequency ½ω by a normally incident wave train of frequency ω has been discussed previously (Guza & Davis 1974; Guza & Inman 1975; Guza & Bowen 1976) on the basis of shallow-water theory. Here the problem is formulated in the full water-wave theory without making the shallow-water approximation and solved for beach angles β = π/2N, where N is an integer. The work confirms the shallow-water results in the limit N [Gt ] 1, shows the effect of larger beach angles and allows a more complete discussion of some aspects of the problem.