"Sand Bar Formation and Soft Beach Protection" Professor Jerry L. Bona

Dear all,

Mathematical Soft Matter Unit (Fried Unit) would like to invite you to a Seminar by Professor Jerry L. Bona.

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Date: Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Time: 14:00-15:00
Venue: C015, LevelC, Lab 1
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Speaker:
Professor Jerry L. Bona
Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science
University of Illinois at Chicago


Title: Sand Bar Formation and Soft Beach Protection

Abstract:
Sand bars are frequently observed in the nearshore zones of large bodies of water.  Depicted here is a set of bars off the coast of Australia (Victoria).  There are three visible bars, but bathymetry reveals there are in fact a system of five bars along this coast.  

A discussion is initiated into the origin of such bar systems.  Clearly it must be connected with the ambient fluid mechanics in the water layer lying over the seabed.  After reviewing some laboratory experiments, a model is derived that takes account of both the water layer and the seabed movement.  This model is seen to generate bar-like structures in certain circumstances.  

The model is then put to the test using data from a 20-year field observation off the East coast of the United States.   It is seen that the model has surprisingly good predictive power.

Finally, we describe the use of such models to solve practical coastal engineering problems


Speaker Profile: http://homepages.math.uic.edu/~bona/index.htm