Abstract
This study is part of a research project to assess the effects of wave action on bank erosion along the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge of Texas. The numerical schemes based on existing models are modified and used for prediction of drawdown and return velocity. The ship induced waves model is verified with field measurements. The method of energy computation for ship induced flow is developed in order to determine its relative contribution to bank erosion. In this study, results of numerical schemes from existing models are compared with the data from the corresponding field measurements. By considering the effects of the boundary layer around the ship and on the bottom of the channel, great improvements in accuracy are gained for the prediction of water surface drawdown. The existing methods for predicting ship induced waves in shallow water are found to be insufficient to predict the wave characteristics in shallow water. Two different methods are developed in this study to compute the energy of the flow induced by a high speed boat and a barge-tug unit. It is found that ship induced flow is the major cause of the bank erosion along the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway in Aransas National Wildlife Refuge based on the comparison of energy from ship induced flow and wind waves.
Yu, Hongbin (1997). Measurements of ship-induced flow and its effect on bank erosion. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /ETD -TAMU -1997 -THESIS -Y9.