Conclusions
By our study,
certain kinds of wave patterns can be drawn out. First,
the
Yahara River
has a variable depth all along the reach length. There has a sharp
increase in
the bed slope near constrictions (especially bridges) that may be the
result of
dredging being done to keep the water way open. a lot of manmade
structures in
the shape of jetties etc present in the river specially south of
highway 113
which
may cause obstruction to the flow and result in undesired sediment
suspensions.
Wind can have a
direct influence to the wave. A higher wind
speed can cause a shorter wave period. The wave
height is also expected to have this pattern. However, the actual
result does
not follow what we expect. System error ( such as wrong assumption and
calculation
error) may be possible. Although wind can have
some influence to the wave speed, wave speed seems more related
to
the
water depth
Wave length is
affect by the bathymetry, but for our research
this influence is minor. Further, the calculated wave length seems to
be longer
than we expect. If system error (for example error due to measurement
or
calculation) is ignored, one possible reason is that during the day
when
the measurements were collected, most water surfaces were frozen. This
may
lead a
longer wave length and also it may shows that wind does not affect the
wave
very much ( like what we had described at last paragraph). For region
upon the bridge of highway 113, shallow water is
mostly defined.
When water passes the bridge, some intermediate water occurred. The
average
wave period, wave height and group velocity are fairly constant. Again,
for
region upon the bridge of highway 113, higher wave energy and power are
occurred. However, most of them are generally small to use as energy
resources.
Finally, as due
to the limited of time, we only perform our
study at the site for a very short period. Hence, some of the wave
parameter
may not be well define. For example, the wind speed may be different
for each
month. We suggest a long term monitor for the wave behavior at this
site for at least a year as to gain more precise information . Further,
software (such STWAVE) for near shore wind wave growth
and prorogation
is also suggested as to model the wind blowing wave pattern at the
site.