This is a basic problem. I am struggling with part (b) which is more conceptual.

Question

This is a basic problem. I am struggling with part (b) which is more conceptual. Thank you for everything!

A wave with the following deep water characteristics is propagating toward the coast: H0 = 1 m T= 15s At a particular near shore site (depth = 5 m) a refraction diagram indicates that the spacing between orthogonals is one-half the deep water spacing. Find the wave height and wave length at the near shore site. Assuming no wave refraction, but the same deep water information as in part (a),and that the wave will break when the ratio H/h reaches 0.8, in what depth does the wave break?

Explanation / Answer

A wave breaks when the significant height of the wave (H) is more than 0.8 times the depth (h). As you have mentioned the depth of the wave is 5 meters, the significant height will come out to be 5*0.8 = 4 metres. This is far more than H0 = 1 meter, the breaking of the wave might not be possible. The problem should be solved with Stoke's fifth order theory for more accuracy.

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