Abstract
This study aims to investigate physical mechanisms of locally concentrated nearshore hydrodynamic forces under interactive fields of waves and currents on sharply changing coastal bathymetries. Laboratory experiments were first performed to represent the focusing phenomena and a newly developed measuring system based on image analysis techniques successfully obtained quantitative high-resolution data of locally concentrated wave fields. Numerical analysis were finally performed to further investigate the physical mechanisms of the observed features and it was found that, among the other various possible factors, the slowly varying wave-induced nearshore currents have one of the most significant impacts on local concentrations of waves around the sharp edge of bathymetry.
