FORCES ON A VERTICAL WALL DUE TO LONG WAVES, BORES, AND DRY-BED SURGES

The forces and overturning moments on a vertical wall due to the refle ction of solitary waves, undular bores, turbulent bores, and surges on a dry bed were determined experimentally. The incident wave celerity, wave profile, runup, force, overturning moment, and pressures were me asured. The wave profiles and runup time histories were obtained with a laser-induced fluorescence system. The transition from undular to tu rbulent bores exhibits a large increase in the maximum measured wave s lope, runup, force, and moment. For all cases, the maximum measured fo rce and overturning moment were always less than that computed from th e maximum measured runup using hydrostatic considerations. When proper ly normalized, the runup and force on a vertical wall due to the impin gement of bores on a mildly sloping beach and a horizontal bed are sho wn to agree quite well. The results of this study may be used to estim ate the forces on a vertical wall due to turbulent bores traveling on beaches with slopes no steeper than 1/50.