Full-scale experiments on a beach drainage system: hydrodynamic effects inside beach

Abstract

An extensive full-scale laboratory investigation on a two-dimensional physical model of a beach drainage system (BDS) was performed at “Grosser Wellen-Kanal” of Hannover, Germany. This research deals with the hydrodynamic aspects of a beach equipped with a BDS, while the morphodynamic aspects of the study are discussed in a companion paper. Knowledge of both the hydrodynamic and the morphodynamic behaviours of a drained beach allows the definition of the main design criteria. The adopted BDS was constituted by four corrugated pipes. Several drain configurations in static and dynamic conditions were considered, paying attention to water table oscillations, drains and groundwater regime and drainage discharge induced by the system start-up. The main results indicate a rise in the unsaturated beach and the presence of a hydraulic disconnection in the groundwater–drain system. The analyses yield useful hydrodynamic information influencing the general system efficiency.

Keywords:

• Beach drainage system
• drainage
• full-scale experiment
• groundwater
• hydrodynamic process
• water table

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the European Community Sixth Framework Programme through a grant from the Integrated Infrastructure Initiative HYDRALAB III within the Transnational Access Activities, Contract no. 022441. We are grateful to the staff of GWK and to the participants of the project partners and, particularly, to Paolo Ciavola, Elisa Fontana and Mouncef Sedrati, Università di Ferrara, Marino L'Abbruzzi, Politecnico di Bari, Pasquale Contestabile and Vincenzo Ferrante, Seconda Università di Napoli, and Sara Corvaro, Università Politecnica delle Marche, for help in setting up the model.