Impulsive plunging wave breaking downstream of a bump in a shallow water flume—Part I: Experimental observations

The plunging wave-breaking process for impulsive flow over a bump in a shallow water flume is described, which is relevant to ship hydrodynamics albeit for an idealized geometry since it includes the effects of wave–body interactions and the wave breaking direction is opposite to the mean flow. This paper consists of two parts, which deal with experimental measurements and numerical simulations, respectively. In Part I, ensemble-averaged measurements are conducted, including the overall flume flow, 2-D particle image velocimetry (PIV) center-plane velocities, turbulence inside the breaking wave, and bottom pressures under the breaking wave. A series of individual plunging wave-breaking tests were conducted, which all followed a similar time line consisting of startup, steep wave formation, plunging wave breaking, and chaotic wave breaking swept downstream time phases. The plunging wave breaking process consists of four repeated plunging events each with three [jet impact (plunge), oblique splash and vertical jet] sub-events, which were identified first using a complementary computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study. Video images with red dye display the plunging wave breaking events and sub-events. The wave profile at maximum height, first plunge, bump and wave breaking vortex and entrapped air tube trajectories, entrapped air tube diameters, kinetic, potential, and total energy are analyzed. Similarities and differences are discussed with the previous deep water or sloping beach experimental and computational studies. The numerical simulations using the exact experimental initial and boundary conditions are presented in Part II of this paper.