Breaker type classification on three laboratory beaches

Breaker type, for waves on smooth concrete slopes, depends on beach slope m, wave period T, and either deep-water or breaker height, H0 or Hb. For forty-three varied laboratory conditions, breaker type can be sorted fairly well by either of two dimensionless combinations of these variables, an offshore parameter, H0/(L0m2) or an inshore parameter, Hb/(gmT2). As either of these parameters increases, breaker type changes from surging or collapsing to plunging to spilling. For the offshore and inshore parameters, respectively, the surge-plunge transition values are about 0.09 and 0.003 and the plunge-spill transition values are about 4.8 and 0.068. The deep-water heights in the offshore parameter were computed from linear, wave-generator theory. Breaker type data were obtained from films of breaking waves for conditions that produced a dominant breaker type, free from interference by secondary waves.