Waves bend around headlands, focus over reefs, shadow behind islands. The physics is elegant, but seeing it respond to your edits in real time is something else.
Wavelab is a browser-based wave modelling tool that lets you adjust wave period, height and direction, reshape the seafloor, and watch refraction and diffraction patterns update live. Behind the scenes is a science-grade REF/DIF numerical model, not a graphics approximation.
It comes preloaded with famous surf breaks in New Zealand, like Raglan and the North Shore of Oahu, plus some complex port environments. You can also upload your own bathymetry grid.
Try it at https://wavelab.apps.oceanum.io, and sign up to Datamesh at OCEANUM.IO to access custom and open-access environmental data, more apps, and tools to build your own.
We’ve just added the Berkhoff (1982) elliptic shoal experiment as a built-in scenario — adapted at a real-world scale (thanks to Saulo Meirelles for the nice idea!) . It’s one of the classic benchmarks in coastal engineering, originally run in a physical wave basin at Delft Hydraulics to test numerical wave propagation models. The shoal focuses wave energy downstream, producing the kind of refraction, diffraction, and wave shadowing patterns that REF/DIF was designed to capture. You can now adjust wave period, height, and shoal depth and watch those patterns shift in real time. Check it out at https://lnkd.in/ewDNsnP9.
And you’re not limited to the preloaded scenarios. Upload your own bathymetry and run it on whatever coastline you’re working on.
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