Saisie et analyse de données des courants particulaires et pressions au voisinage du fond dans la houle littorale proche du déferlement

In fact, coastal swell near to the breaker zone is feared by engineers when evaluating the stresses exerted on coastal civil engineering structures. This fear is mainly caused by the phenomenon's complex nature; a nature which can only be partially represented by the current theoretical models. Experimentally speaking, the observation techniques we have enable the quantitative study of coastal swell near to the breaker zone, as well as the characterization of some of its properties and the testing of some theoretical models which are valid off shore and could be adapted to the coast. This study demonstrates the strong non-linearity of free surface movements. It also details the conditions of utilization of the Airy and long wave theories in the evaluation of particulate currents. Finally, it presents a model of the statistical distribution of free surface maximums which generalizes the results of Cartwright and Longuet-Higgins, both well known and valid in deep water.