Williams, S.J., and Jeng, D.-S., 2007. Viscous attenuation of interfacial waves over a porous seabed. Journal of Coastal Research, SI 50 (Proceedings of the 9th International Coastal Symposium), 338 – 342. Gold Coast, Australia, ISSN 0749.0208

In this paper, we study the viscous damping of waves on a stably stratified fluid over a porous elastic seabed. Using the linearised Navier-Stokes equations as the governing equations of motion, the newly derived solution describes the attenuation of a progressive surface wave on a two-layer stratification due to damping caused by interfacial shear and from the wave interaction with a porous elastic seabed. The analytical results are discussed in the light of experimental observations and the viscous effects are considered by comparison with the previous solution for a rigid impermeable seabed. It is shown that the overall decay scale for viscous attenuation is determined by the relative wavelength and the non-dimensional depth of the lower fluid layer. Wave attenuation due to the porous bed is at a maximum when the lower overlying fluid layer is approximately 50% thicker than its Stokes boundary layer.