A Model of the Vertical Structure of the Wave and Current Bottom Boundary Layer

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Abstract
The nature of the bottom boundary layer above the seabed has been studied for many years by physical oceanographers and coastal engineers. The oceanographers have tended to be concerned with such questions as the prediction of tidal drag coefficients for use in numerical models of shelf-sea regions, and the extent of vertical tidal stirring in the water column which affects biological productivity. By comparison, coastal engineers have tended to concentrate attention on the bottom boundary layers associated with surface waves, and on such phenomena as the stability of beaches and the scour around structures. In this way, two rather separate areas have developed in the literature, one concerned with tidal and quasi-steady boundary layer flows and the other with wave boundary layers. However, this distinction is in many ways artificial and, in this paper, we consider the two phenomena as the outer limits of a continuum of conditions involving combined wave and current flows.

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