The Cassino project is a multi-national project in the southern part of Brazil, in which scientists from Brazil, USA, UK and The Netherlands are cooperating to study in detail how mud mobilization affects waves, currents, and sediment transport at the inner shelf and surf zone. Cassino Beach is an open sandy beach in southern Brazil where mud deposits are periodically resuspended by storm waves from 6 m to 15 m depth and transported onshore to the beach (Figure 1). The mud on the beach offers risks for tourism and macro fauna and result in attenuation of wave energy. This project aims to improve the understanding of the dynamics of shoaling waves and sediment transport in the coastal zone in areas where significant cohesive sediment deposits occur. The project started on 2004 with the field campaign to characterize the mud deposit. The main experiment was conducted in May-June 2005, currently the partners are starting to analyse the data to assess if a mud mobilization and wave attenuation was registered.
Objectives
- To characterize the wave attenuation over muddy bottoms, as a function of frequency, considering the geotechnical and rheological properties of the deposits
- To evaluate the performance of wave transformation models over heterogeneous beds
- To evaluate the behavior of the lutocline formed under wave action and the importance of wave-associated sediment transport
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