In the design of physical model experiments in coastal engineering, it is common that the construction of a foreshore is necessary to obtain the desired wave conditions at a given location, usually close to a structure being tested. Since the construction of foreshores is labour intensive (and thus expensive), it is useful to be able to check a priori whether the target wave conditions - both bulk parameters and wave height exceedance distribution - are met with a given foreshore design. One way to do this is by using a numerical wave model. In this work the ability of the XBeach 2-layer non-hydrostatic model to reproduce wave height exceedance distributions over a sloping foreshore is validated using wave flume data. Preliminary results are promising, showing reasonable to good matches of both spectral wave parameters and wave height distribution.
