Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2025

DOI

10.1016/j.apor.2025.104784

Publication Title

Applied Ocean Research

Volume

164

Pages

104784

Abstract

Discarded objects like munitions in marine environments pose public safety risks. The behavior of various density objects deployed at four cross-shore positions in the surf zone of a large-scale 120 m x 5 m x 5 m wave flume were observed under different forcing conditions. Net migration was predominantly directed offshore, with approximately 70 % offshore migration observed near the outer surf zone. Density, shape, and initial orientation were identified as important to object behavior, with density acting as the dominant driver in 67 % of the object pairing scenarios. The influence of shape and initial orientation on net migration decreases as near-bed forcing increases from the outer to the inner surf zone. Near the outer surf zone, tapered objects migrated longer distances in 89 % of the pairings than the more symmetric cylinders. Near-instantaneous observations provided by internal inertial motion units further suggest that density impacted object migration distance, migration duration, and motion initiation. The migration distance and duration of a less-dense object were up to ∼15 and ∼10 times that of a denser object in the inner surf zone. Faster migrations were observed on moderate slopes than flat areas, underscoring the role of local bed slope. The observations corroborate prior findings on the influence of density while challenging some shape-dependent migration patterns. The investigation offers detailed insights into the roles of shape and initial orientation on object net migration, and the near-instantaneous response of objects to wave action in the surf zone.

Rights

© 2025 The Authors.

This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) License.

Original Publication Citation

Idowu, T. E., & Puleo, J. A. (2025). Laboratory investigation of shape and initial orientation effects on surf zone object migration. Applied Ocean Research, 164, Article 104784. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apor.2025.104784

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