Model Development of Water Depth for Spilling-Type Breaking Waves Using Gene Expression Programming

Breaking wave is an important phenomenon in beach deformation study and design of coastal structures. The water depth of breaking wave for spilling wave type is one of parameters affecting breaking wave needed to be investigated. Although many models are proposed for predicting breaker depth, none of them is clearly specified to apply to any particular breaker type. This paper, therefore, focuses on developing a formula for estimating the water depth of spilling-type breaking waves by Gene Expression programming. Many laboratory data covering a wide range of wave and beach conditions from small-scale and large-scale experiments are collected for model development. The results display that model developed by Gene Expression programming shows good performance with low root mean square relative error in predicting breaker depth. Besides, this model form is simple and convenient for computation. With excellent results, the developed model is strongly recommended for estimating the breaking water depth of spilling waves.