skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Search for: All records

Creators/Authors contains: "Lynett, Patrick"

Note: When clicking on a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, you will be taken to an external site maintained by the publisher. Some full text articles may not yet be available without a charge during the embargo (administrative interval).
What is a DOI Number?

Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from this site.

  1. Abstract This paper evaluates the experimental generation of internal solitary waves (ISWs) in a miscible two-layer system with a free surface using a jet-array wavemaker (JAW). Unlike traditional gate-release experiments, the JAW system generates ISWs by forcing a prescribed vertical distribution of mass flux. Experiments examine three different layer-depth ratios, with ISW amplitudes up to the maximum allowed by the extended Korteweg-de Vries (eKdV) solution. Phase speeds and wave profiles are captured via planar laser-induced fluorescence and the velocity field is measured synchronously using particle imaging velocimetry. Measured properties are directly compared with the eKdV predictions. As expected, small- and intermediate-amplitude waves match well with the corresponding eKdV solutions, with errors in amplitude and phase speed below 10%. For large waves with amplitudes approaching the maximum allowed by the eKdV solution, the phase speed and the velocity profiles resemble the eKdV solution while the wave profiles are distorted following the trough. This can potentially be attributed to Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities forming at the pycnocline. Larger errors are generally observed when the local Richardson number at the JAW inlet exceeds the threshold for instability. 
    more » « less
    Free, publicly-accessible full text available March 1, 2026
  2. Eighteen years after Hurricane Charley made landfall in 2004, Hurricane Ian made landfall in nearly the same location, also as a Category 4 hurricane. Unlike Hurricane Charley (2004), water more so than wind was the impetus behind the disaster that unfolded. Despite being a below-design-level wind event, the large windfield drove a powerful storm surge as much as 13 ft high (relative to the NAVD8 vertical datum) in the barrier islands of Sanibel, Ft. Myers Beach, and Bonita Beach. Flooding was extensive along not only the Florida coast, but also well inland into low-lying areas as far north as Duval County and the storm’s second landfall site in South Carolina. As such, Hurricane Ian will likely be one of the costliest landfalling hurricanes of all time in the US, claiming over 100 lives. The impacts from Hurricane Ian were most severe in the barrier islands from the combination of storm surge and high winds, with many buildings completely washed away, and others left to deal with significant scour and eroded foundations. Several mobile/manufactured home parks on the barrier islands fared particularly poorly, offering little to no protection to anyone unfortunate enough to shelter in them. The damage was not restricted to buildings, as the causeways out to the barrier islands were washed away in multiple locations. In contrast, wind damage from Hurricane Ian appears less severe overall relative to other Category 4 storms, perhaps due to a combination of actual wind intensity being less than Category 4 at the surface at landfall, and the improvements in building construction that have occurred since Hurricane Charley struck 18 years earlier. It is notable that extensive losses were in part driven by decades-long construction boom of residential structures in Ft. Myers and Cape Coral since the 1950s and 1960s, expanding communities and neighborhoods encroaching upon vulnerable coastlines. Beyond serving as an important event to validate current and evolving standards for coastal construction, Hurricane Ian provides a clarion call to reconsider the ramifications of Florida's coastal development under changing climate. This project encompasses the products of StEER's response to this event: Preliminary Virtual Reconnaissance Report (PVRR), Early Access Reconnaissance Report (EARR) and Curated Dataset. 
    more » « less
  3. Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that integrates 3D virtual objects into the physical world in real-time, while virtual reality (VR) is a technology that immerses users in an interactive 3D virtual environment. The fast development of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies has reshaped how people interact with the physical world. This presentation will outline the results from two unique AR and one Web-based VR coastal engineering projects, motivating the next stage in the development of the augmented reality package for coastal students, engineers, and planners. 
    more » « less
  4. SUMMARY On 2020 May 2, an Mw = 6.6 earthquake struck about 63 km south of Ierapetra in Crete, Greece. The earthquake generated a small tsunami which agitated local harbours. We studied this event in the context of earthquakes with seismic records in 1908, 1910, 1923, 1952, 2009 and 2013, all of similar magnitudes located south of Crete. Based on an energy-to-moment ratio, our analysis suggests that this event was neither slow nor fast, hence appropriate for using scaling laws to infer seafloor deformations. We also performed a field survey, three days after the event and present field observations from seven locations, including the island of Chrisi, where our highest measurement of 0.95 m was located. Runup along the coast of southern Crete ranged from 0.24 to 0.87 m. One tide gauge record is available for this event, and we did image analysis to obtain accurately timed water surface elevations from eyewitness videos and images. We undertook high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations using published moment tensor solutions to identify the source of the tsunami. Simulations were performed with two models, MOST (a nonlinear shallow water model) and COULWAVE (a Boussinesq-type model), to infer how different approximations of the parent equations of motion affect predictions for tsunamis of this size, which are fairly common in the Eastern Mediterranean and routinely trigger Tsunami Service Providers to issue warning messages. Based on the inter-model comparison, we conclude that the shallow-water equations are adequate in modelling this event at the distances considered, suggesting that such codes can be used to infer the tsunami source and to estimate tsunami impacts. Last, our field work revealed lack of knowledge of tsunami hazards, as most eyewitnesses remained near the waterfront, filming the associated unusual water motions instead of taking shelter on high ground. 
    more » « less
  5. null (Ed.)
    For many practical and theoretical purposes, various types of tsunami wave models have been developed and utilized so far. Some distinction among them can be drawn based on governing equations used by the model. Shallow water equations and Boussinesq equations are probably most typical ones among others since those are computationally efficient and relatively accurate compared to 3D Navier-Stokes models. From this idea, some coupling effort between Boussinesq model and shallow water equation model have been made (e.g., Son et al. (2011)). In the present study, we couple two different types of tsunami models, i.e., nondispersive shallow water model of characteristic form(MOST ver.4) and dispersive Boussinesq model of non-characteristic form(Son and Lynett (2014)) in an attempt to improve modelling accuracy and efficiency.Recorded Presentation from the vICCE (YouTube Link): https://youtu.be/cTXybDEnfsQ 
    more » « less
  6. null (Ed.)
    The abstract is based on the project of "extended reality" for effective communication of hazards from extreme coastal events, such as tsunamis and hurricanes. The project attends to use augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) to allow, for example, a coastal resident to see a digital tsunami crashing onshore and bulldozing through a community, all while standing on their beach or in their driveway. This type of experience provides an emotional impact and long-lasting memory that will guide future planning decisions and proactivity. In this abstract, we focus on applying mobile augmented reality (AR) to a tsunami simulation system and creating this digital extreme event experience. The tsunami modeling studies use the methods and models described in Tavakkol & Lynett (2017), Lynett et al. (2017) and Lynett & Tavakkol (2017).Recorded Presentation from the vICCE (YouTube Link): https://youtu.be/TD4qI5QdAEc 
    more » « less
  7. null (Ed.)
    This paper describes a two-dimensional scalar transport model solving advection-diffusion equation based on GPU-accelerated Boussinesq model called Celeris. Celeris is the firstly-developed Boussinesq-type model that is equipped with an interactive system between user and computing unit. Celeris provides greatly advantageous user-interface that one can change not only water level, topography but also model parameters while the simulation is running. In this study, an advection-diffusion equation for scalar transport was coupled with extended Boussinesq equations to simulate scalar transport in the nearshore.Recorded Presentation from the vICCE (YouTube Link): https://youtu.be/aHvMmdz3wps 
    more » « less