FLUCTUATION OF RIP CURRENT MEASURED IN SHALLOW WATER REGION WITH SMALL TIDAL RANGE

Abstract

Disappearance and formation processes of rip channel are discussed based on the field measurements of wave height, current velocity, bottom topography and flow pattern of near-shore current. Sudden increase in wave height together with the change in the wave direction took place during a half day caused these phenomena and rip current rose and fell according to the transition of the bottom topography. Furthermore, flow pattern of rip current was not steady but transformed itself with low frequency fluctuations of the period of few minutes. It is found that such low frequency fluctuations are caused by the intrinsic fluctuations of the incident waves (grouping waves) through the numerical simulations.