Pedrozo-Acuña, A., Resendiz, D., Gutiérrez, C., 2013. Experimental study on sediment advection and beach response under plunging wave breaking.

This paper presents an experimental investigation into the morphological response of beaches under the action of plunging wave breaking. Experimental results performed under the same wave conditions, allowed the association of beach evolution to its porosity. Firstly a beach profile which presented the generation of a clear berm at the top of the profile and a beach step below the SWL (higher porosity) was illustrated. Secondly, an erosive condition of beach profile was characterised (lower porosity). The morphological responses of both beaches were differentiated in terms of the porosity of the beach, which highlight its role in the resulting spatio-temporal nature of the momentum balance under plunging wave breaking. Additionally, BIV derived velocities were utilised as a tool for the investigation of hydraulic regimes responsible of generating different beach responses and sediment sorting in the laboratory. Through Euler's equation the total acceleration was deconstructed, allowing a careful assessment of the contribution of each the acceleration terms to the resulting momentum balance. Notably, the contribution of the local acceleration term is insignificant all along the beach profile, while the role of advective terms cannot be overlooked.