The Effect of Changes in Wave Height on Erosion Pattern and Sedimentation in Inlet

Wave is one of the main factors forming inlets. Refraction of waves in shallow waters of inlet’s mouth forms bank flows and transports sediments in this area. Wave height is one of the hydrodynamic parameters and its effect on flow and sedimentation patterns are examined. In this study, for this purpose, a coastal basin that is connected to the open sea through a mouth is simulated in Mike 21 software. For this simulation, an unstructured flexible mesh, with the dimension of 10 to 50 meters was used, in a finite difference model. In this model, the waves with 0.75, 1.5 and 2.2 m heights and 8 sec. fixed period are emitted perpendicular to the coastline. Then, the amounts of flow and sediment transportation are calculated in different parts of the mouth according to simulation results. The flow rate increases as the wave height increases and proportionally the volume of transported sediment is also increased.