Phase difference is defined as the ratio of time of uprush of swash (t) to the wave period (T) (Kemp, 1960, 1975). Using the ratio t/T, Kemp classified the wave-beach relationship into three categories with characteristically different flow regimes. For low values of phase difference, the broken wave surges up the beach to the limit of uprush and returns as backwash to the breaker point before the succeeding wave has broken (surge condition). Flow landward of the breakers is distinctly oscillatory and beaches steep and plane. Increasing wave height (or shorter wave period) and plunging breakers result in backwash from one wave, causing interference with the uprush of the next and producing a transition flow regime. Further increase in phase difference values greater than unity produces what Kemp termed flow conditions in which successive lines of breakers continuously spill water into the inshore zone, producing a corresponding seaward return flow. This situation, Kemp's so-called surf...
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References
Kemp, P. H., 1960. The relation between wave action and beach profile characteristics, in Conf. Coastal Eng., 7th, Am. Soc. Civil Engineers, The Hague, Proc., 262–276.
Kemp, P. H., 1975. Wave asymmetry in the nearshore zone breaker area, in J. R. Hails and A. P. Carr, eds., Nearshore Sediment Dynamics and Sedimentation. Chichester, U.K.: Wiley, 47–68.
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© 1982 Hutchinson Ross Publishing Company
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Carr, A.P. (1982). Phase difference . In: Beaches and Coastal Geology. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30843-1_323
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30843-1_323
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