Narrow Results

The parallel, unstructured-mesh SWAN model has been employed to study a tidal inlet with complex bathymetry in the Dutch Wadden Sea. The unstructured grid resolves the large-scale, O(1km) wave dynamics in the open sea whereas employing 15-20m grid-resolution over the tidal basins and flats to gain an insight of surf breaking, local wind-wave and wave-current interactions and to assess the performance of SWAN through hindcasts of storm events. Previous studies and the present study show that the default source term settings routinely underestimate the low-frequency peak energy in the wind-sea part of the spectrum and the finite-depth wave growth over nearly horizontal beds. High-resolution simulations have indicated that the accuracy is directly affected by parameterization of bottom friction, whitecapping dissipation and depth-induced wave breaking.