A coupled-mode model for water wave scattering by vertically sheared currents in variable bathymetry regions

Abstract A coupled-mode model is developed for treating the wave–current–seabed interaction problem, with application to wave scattering by non-homogeneous, sheared current with linear vertical velocity profile, over general bottom topography. The wave potential is represented by a series of local vertical modes containing the propagating and evanescent modes, plus additional terms accounting for the satisfaction of the boundary conditions. Using the above representation, in conjunction with a variational principle, a coupled system of differential equations on the horizontal plane is derived, with respect to the unknown modal amplitudes. In the case of small-amplitude waves, a linearized version of the above coupled-mode system is obtained, extending previous analysis by Belibassakis et al. (2011) to the propagation of water waves over variable bathymetry regions in the presence of vertically sheared currents. Keeping only the propagating mode in the vertical expansion of the wave potential, the present system reduces to a one-equation model, that is shown to extend known mild-slope mild vertical shear equation concerning wave–current interaction over slowly varying topography. After additional simplifications, the latter model is shown to be compatible with the extended mild-slope mild-shear equation by Touboul et al. (2016). Results are presented for various representative test cases demonstrating the usefulness of the present coupled mode system and the importance of various terms in the modal expansion, and compared against experimental data collected in wave flume validating the present method. The analytical structure of the present system facilitates extensions to model non-linear effects and applications concerning wave scattering by inhomogeneous currents in coastal regions with general 3D bottom topography.