Monitoring near-shore shingle transport under waves using a passive acoustic technique

Passive acoustic techniques have been used to measure shingle (gravel) sediment transport in very shallow water, near the wave breaking zone on a beach. The experiments were conducted at 1:1 scale in the Large Wave Flume, Grosse Wellen Kanal (GWK) at Hannover, Germany. The frequency spectrum induced by shingle mobilized under breaking waves can be distinguished from other ambient noise, and is found to be independent of water depth and wave conditions. The inverse relationship between centroid frequency and representative grain size is shown to remain valid in shallow water wave conditions. Individual phases of onshore and offshore transport can be identified. Analysis of the acoustic frequency spectrum provides insight into the mechanics of phase-resolved shingle transport.