Standing wave field observations at a vertical wall

Abstract To withstand the local wave climate, coastal structure design relies on our understanding of the wave characteristics at the structure wall and the forces they impose onto the wall. However, despite the vast number of protective structures along our coasts, detailed field observations of waves measured directly at the structure wall are virtually absent. In this study, rare observations of wave characteristics at a vertical wall are presented. Contrary to linear wave theory, results suggest that the standing waves are highly nonlinear. Waves at the wall have considerably larger kurtosis and skewness compared to the incoming wave field and the wave steepness at the wall is observed to exceed the theoretical wave steepness limit of standing waves.