Coastal Inlet Model Facility

The Coastal Inlet Model Facility, as part of the Coastal Inlets Research Program (CIRP), is an idealized inlet dedicated to the study of coastal inlets and equipped to represent the most significant physical processes at and around inlets. An inlet is a region connecting two or more large bodies of water by a relatively short and narrow channel. The water bodies may be an ocean and lagoon, a large lake and a bay, or a river entering a sea or lake. Many processes at inlets can be examined in a thorough and efficient manner in a dedicated inlet physical model. A 1:50 undistorted scale was assumed to determine reasonable inlet dimensions, however other scales can easily be assumed to accommodate the study of specific processes because of the simplified bathymetry in the model. The basin at this time contains an inlet with fairly steep beach slopes so that additional features (such as an ebb shoal) can easily be added. Also the bathymetry can be remolded in the inlet entrance area to the more complex bathymetry of an actual inlet, either in fixed-bed (concrete) or movable-bed (sand). Ebb and flood shoal areas can also be modified to represent more complex bathymetries.