Impact pressure of breaking waves on vertical and sloping walls

Laboratory tests are conducted to measure the impact pressures of breaking waves on vertical, 5° forward, and 5, 10, 20, 30, and 45° backward sloping walls. The base structure of the wall has a foreshore slope of . Regular waves are used throughout the experiments for all wall angles. The maximum impact pressures on the wall are shown to satisfy the log-normal probability distribution. It is found from the present experiments that the impact pressures and resulting forces on sloping walls can be greater than those on a vertical wall. On the seven different walls tested, the maximum impact pressures occur most frequently slightly below the still-water level. The pattern of the impact pressure history does not change with the slope of the wall, and as the probability of maximum impact pressure decreases, the pressures around the peak pressure region of the impact pressure histories remain longer.     

An experimental investigation of a vertical wall response to breaking wave impact

Laboratory experiments are conducted to measure the impact pressures and resulting deflections from breaking oscillatory waves on a vertical wall with 1/10 foreshore slope. The maximum impact pressure data on the wall are statistically analysed and the relationships between the magnitudes of impact pressures and forces, and their durations, are investigated. The maximum impact pressures, among the 90 wave impacts, are found to vary between 1.37 × 10⁴and 28.3 × 10⁴Pa. The maximum impact pressures are shown to reasonably satisfy the log-normal probability distribution and they occur most frequently slightly below the still-water level. The greatest wall deflection at the point of measurement is caused by an impact which has a maximum pressure of 3.6 × 10⁴Pa, corresponding to 50% probability in the log-normal distribution. It is found that the longer-lasting low impact forces are more effective in producing the larger wall deflections. In this respect, the maximum impact pressures in the range between 2.5 × 10⁴and 5 × 10⁴Pa obtained in this study are found to be the most effective. The upper limit of this range (when non-dimensionalised by the specific weight of water and deep-water wave steepness) is suggested as a design value for vertical walls.     

An investigation of breaking wave pressures on inclined walls

Shoreline structures are subjected to breaking wave loads which may reach 690 KN/m². One possibility to reduce these loadings is to slope the exposed surface backwards. The possible amount of reduction in breaking wave loads is, however, unclear, and recent model tests indicated that sloped walls might be exposed to higher loads than are vertical walls. Within the Wave Energy Group at Queen's University Belfast, tests on a 1/36 model of a shoreline wave power station were conducted in order to assess the influence of front wall inclination on the magnitude of breaking wave pressures. It was found that breaking wave pressures decrease from 100% for the vertical wall to 44% for a 32.7° backwards inclined wall and to 64% for a 32.7° forward inclined wall. From the results it was concluded that a maximum pressure of 105% can be expected for a 10° forward inclined wall. Design recommendations were found to be conservative.     

直立堤浮托力的概率特征

本文基于1987和1988年夏季在古镇口港同步连续观测的波浪、波压力和浮托力资料,分析研究了浮托力的概率特征、浮托力沿堤底面的变化及其谱特征。结果表明,浮托力幅度和周期的累积分布实际上不随测点在堤底面上的位置变化,可用公式表示。浮托力沿堤底面宽度近似呈线性衰减,前趾浮托力最大,后趾不为零,呈梯形状。文中还给出了计算最大峰、谷总浮托力的方法。     

An investigation of breaker heights, shapes and pressures

The shape of breaking waves has a significant effect on wave impact pressures on vertical sea walls. In order to refine the results of previous researchers, a systematic study of breaker shapes and wave impact pressures on a vertical wall using a newly developed experimental technique, sequential flash photography, was conducted at Queen's University of Belfast. Assumptions, like the existence of a vertical flip-through jet or a parallel face impact, could not be confirmed. The maximum pressure was found to occur for plunging breakers and at Still Water Level (SWL), although high pressures can also occur for other breaker types above or below SWL.     

破碎波冲击直立桩柱的大比尺试验研究

波浪破碎是海洋中最常见的现象之一,其能够对海洋中的结构物产生巨大的波浪力作用。本文在大比尺波浪水槽通过聚焦波的方法生成了极端波浪和不同破碎阶段的破碎波浪,并对其冲击桩柱过程中的点压力进行了测量,进而采用连续小波变换的方法,对桩柱上点压力的分布及大小进行了细致分析。结果表明,多次重复试验下,相比非破碎极端波浪,破碎极端波浪产生的点压力离散性更强;波浪破碎程度越大,测点位置越靠近波峰,则点压力离散程度越大;破碎波的最大点压力出现在1.2倍的最大波面附近,且其大小可达3倍的最大静水压力;基于点压力小波谱,不同破碎阶段破碎波产生冲击作用不同,对于波浪作用桩柱前波浪已经发生破碎的情况,其冲击区域更大,点压力分布更复杂;而对于桩面破碎的情况,其造成的波浪总力更大。     

Numerical simulation of breaking wave generated sediment suspension and transport process based on CLSVOF algorithm

The sediment suspension and transport process under complex breaking wave situation is investigated using large eddy simulation （abbreviated as LES hereafter） method. The coupled level set （LS） and volume of fluid （VOF） method is used to accurately capture the evolution of air？water interface. The wall effect at the bottom is modeled based on the wave friction term while the complicate bottom boundary condition for sediment is tackled using Chou and Fringer’s sediment erosion and deposition flux method. A simulation is carried out to study the sediment suspension and transport process under periodic plunging breaking waves. The comparison between the results by CLSVOF method and those obtained by the LS method is given. It shows that the latter performs as well as the CLSVOF method in the pre-breaking weak-surface deformation situation. However, a serious mass conservation problem in the later stages of wave breaking makes it inappropriate for this study by use of the LS method and thus the CLSVOF method is suggested. The flow field and the distribution of suspended sediment concentration are then analyzed in detail. At the early stage of breaking, the sediment is mainly concentrated near the bottom area. During the wave breaking process, when the entrapped large-scale air bubble travels downward to approach the bottom, strong shear is induced and the sediment is highly entrained.     

Design of a caisson plate under wave impact

From the laboratory experiments and field studies it has been shown that when a wave breaks directly on a vertical wall, impact pressures of high magnitude and short duration, are produced. Despite the recent advances made in collecting data on impact pressure histories and their spatial distributions, analyses on the structural behaviour of the walls loaded by the impact forces do not seem adequate. In the present study the theoretical analysis of the response characteristics of a caisson plate, having different aspect ratios, under the wave impact loading is investigated. Numerical results for the dynamic values of moments and transverse displacements are obtained by the method of finite elements. Some prerequisite experimental data for wave breaking and resulting impact pressures are provided. The static results for moments and deflections are also computed for comparing them with the dynamic values. The dynamic results are found significantly greater than the static values. The ratio between the dynamic and static values is called “Dynamic magnification factor” that varies with plate aspect ratio. Based on this factor a procedure is proposed which may have practical consequences in the design of caisson plates.     

Theoretical and experimental investigation of a vertical wall response to wave impact

The laboratory and field experiments so far have shown that when a wave breaks directly on a vertical faced coastal structure, the resulting impact pressures may become very severe in magnitude and short in duration. Some experimental evidence in the literature suggests that the structural response to the extremely high magnitude impact forces is only limited. This study is mainly concerned with the comparison of the theoretical and experimental results of a vertical wall response under the wave impact loading. In the dynamic analysis of the wall the classical elastic plate theory is used and the numerical results for the dynamic values of the transverse displacement are obtained by employing the method of finite elements. In the theoretical analyses the experimental pressure histories are used and the theoretical wall deflection histories are compared with the experimental results. The computational and experimental deflection histories exhibit similar patterns. The theoretical maximum wall deflections are mostly found to be slightly smaller than the experimental values.     

Prediction of geometrical properties of perfect breaking waves on composite breakwaters

Breaking wave loads on coastal structures depend primarily on the type of wave breaking at the instant of impact. When a wave breaks on a vertical wall with an almost vertical front face called the “perfect breaking”, the greatest impact forces are produced. The correct prediction of impact forces from perfect breaking of waves on seawalls and breakwaters is closely dependent on the accurate determination of their configurations at breaking. The present study is concerned with the determination of the geometrical properties of perfect breaking waves on composite-type breakwaters by employing artificial neural networks. Using a set of laboratory data, the breaker crest height, h_b, breaker height, H_b, and water depth in front of the wall, d_w, from perfect breaking of waves on composite breakwaters are predicted using the artificial neural network technique and the results are compared with those obtained from linear and multi-linear regression models. The comparisons of the predicted results from the present models with measured data show that the h_b, H_b and d_w values, which represent the geometry of waves breaking directly on composite breakwaters, can be predicted more accurately by artificial neural networks compared to linear and multi-linear regressions.     

Geometrical properties of perfect breaking waves on composite breakwaters

The experimental results have so far shown that when a wave breaks on a vertical wall with an almost vertical front face at the instant of impact that is called perfect breaking or perfect impact, the greatest impact forces are produced on the wall. Therefore, the configuration of breaking waves is important in the design considerations of coastal structures. The present study is concerned with determining the geometrical properties of oscillatory waves that break perfectly on the vertical wall of composite-type breakwaters. The laboratory tests for perfect breaking waves on composite breakwaters are conducted with base slopes of 1/2, 1/4 and 1/6, and with berm widths of 0.00, 0.10, 0.20, 0.30 and 0.40 m. The shape and the dimensions of waves at the instant of perfect breaking on the wall are determined using a video camera. The experimental results for the geometrical properties of the breakers are presented non-dimensionally. Within the range of present experimental conditions, it is found that the dimensionless breaker crest height, h_b/d_w, and dimensionless breaker height, H_b/d_w, decrease; and, dimensionless breaker depth, d_w/H₀, increases with increasing relative berm width, B/D. The breaker height index, H_b/H₀, is almost unaffected by B/D. The deep-water wave steepness and the base slope of the breakwater do not seem to influence the geometrical properties of the breakers at wall systematically.     

Comparisons of Computational and Experimental Results of Solitary Wave Breaking

- In this paper, the solitary wave deformation along a gentle slope and the impact pressure, on the wall are investigated experimentally and the results are compared with numerical results obtained based on the volume of fluid (VOF) method. The topography used in the experiment consists of three segments. The left segment is a 1:4 slope, the middle segment 1 :SO slope and the right segment a horizontal bed. Both the wave heights and breaking points obtained from numerical simulation and experiments are in good agreement. Numerical results give reasonable pressure distributions of breaking waves on the wall.     

浅水破碎波对直立圆柱作用力的试验研究

分析了桩柱破波力的构成特性,认为破碎波与桩柱作用过程中在不完全绕流区将出现由于附连质量迅速变化引起的冲击力和柱前后波面高度差引起的附加压差力;影响破碎波对直立圆柱作用力的因素应该包括确定破波特性的水底坡度i、入射深水波陡H_0/L_0及代表圆柱对破波作用影响的相对柱径D/H_0。通过从i=1/100到1/15五种底坡上桩柱破波力的系统试验,探索了桩柱破波力的作用特性,归纳了计算桩柱破波力的经验公式。     

Laboratory experiments for wave motions and turbulence flows in front of a breakwater

In this paper, laboratory data for free surface displacements and velocity fields in front of a caisson breakwater covered with wave-dissipating blocks, together with wave pressures acting on the caisson, are presented and discussed. The core of the breakwater is made of a concrete caisson with a vertical front wall. The caisson is protected by a thick layer of tetrapods and is supported by a rubble mound. The breakwater is placed on the 1/25 impermeable slope. Two types of incident waves are used in the experiments: nonbreaking waves and spilling-type breaking waves. In the breaking wave case, the incident wave breaks offshore before it reaches the breakwater. The velocity data are obtained by using both the Laser Doppler Velocimeter (LDV) and the Electromagnetic Current Meter (EMCM). The raw data are analyzed using a numerical-filtering scheme so that turbulent fluctuations are separated from the phase-dependent wave motions. The vertical profiles of the time-averaged (over a wave period) turbulent velocity components at several vertical cross-sections in front of the breakwater are then analyzed. The spatial variations of the time-averaged turbulence velocity suggest that turbulence is generated inside the protective armor layer and transported into the flow region in front of the breakwater. The wave pressures on the vertical face and on the bottom of the caisson are also reported.     

Numerical predictions of water–air wave slam using incompressible–compressible smoothed particle hydrodynamics

The high-speed impact between a body and water is an important practical problem, whether due to wave impact on a structural deck or wall, or due to a moving body such as a ship or aircraft hitting water. The very high pressures exerted are difficult to predict and the role of air may be significant. In this paper, numerical simulations are undertaken to investigate the impact of a rigid horizontal plate onto a wave crest and, in the limit, onto a flat water surface. A two-phase incompressible–compressible smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method for water and air, respectively, is applied where the water phase imposes kinematics on the air phase at the air–water interface and the air phase imposes pressures on the water at the interface. Results are compared with experimental measurements undertaken using a drop rig positioned over a wave flume so that a horizontal plate impacts the water surface in free flight. Numerical predictions of impact pressure are quite accurate; air is shown to have a significant cushioning effect for impact on to flat water and this reduces for waves as the ratio of wave height to wavelength increases.     

波浪作用下方块石护面稳定性研究

护面是海堤和护岸的重要结构,直接抵御波浪作用,可采用人工块体、块石等,种类繁多。采用紧密排列方块石作为护面结构是一种景观性较好的型式,依据方块石厚度不同能抵御不同大小的波浪作用。干砌条石及干砌块石护面曾有一些规范给出过计算方法,但现行规范没有相关内容可供设计参考,已有计算方法的理论分析还存在不足。当波浪与斜坡堤相互作用时,方块石护面出现位移或脱落可能发生在波浪回落最低阶段、波浪破碎打击阶段及破后爬高水流作用阶段,通过研究得到了不同阶段波浪对方块石护面作用力的计算方法。在波浪回落最低阶段,考虑了护面及其下方垫层渗透性影响,通过理论分析建立了低渗透护面浮托压强计算模型,采用物模试验将计算结果与试验测量值进行了对比分析,结果表明总体趋势符合,量值接近;在波浪破碎冲击阶段,基于射流冲击作用原理,提出了波浪在斜坡面破碎冲击压强计算方法,通过试验分析了波浪破碎水深波高比与破波相似参数的关系,利用浅水波理论计算了波浪破碎冲击水流流速;在爬高水流作用阶段,提出了水流引起的方块石护面垂直浮托力及水平拖曳力的计算方法,通过试验结果拟合了浮托力系数和拖曳力系数,验证了水流作用下护面的受力特征。最后,针对方块...     

The influence of air and scale on wave impact pressures

Both laboratory and field tests that are described provide new information on the characteristics of wave impacts. Laboratory drop tests conducted using seawater and freshwater demonstrate that maximum impact pressures and rise times are influenced by both the level of aeration and the violence of the impact. A relationship is derived which enables the reduction in impact pressure caused by aeration to be estimated. This relationship is shown to provide a better means of predicting impact pressures in laboratory seawater wave tests from freshwater tests than either the Froude or Cauchy laws. Measurements are presented which show that, due to the different properties of seawater and freshwater, aeration levels are higher in seawater breakers than in freshwater breakers, even at a 1:25 model scale. The ways in which this affects the temporal variation in pressure and the scale relationships are discussed in some detail. Aeration and pressure measurements are also presented for full-scale wave impacts on a breakwater exposed to Atlantic waves. Attention is drawn to the likely role of expelled air and data included which indicate that the equivalent of up to 55% of entrained air does not necessarily prevent the occurrence of high impact pressures with short rise times.     

Dynamic analysis of a vertical plate exposed to breaking wave impact

From the experimental studies in recent years, it has become known that when a wave breaks directly on a vertical faced coastal structure, high magnitude impact pressures are produced. The theoretical and experimental studies show that the dynamic response of such structures under wave impact loading is closely dependent on the magnitude and duration of the load history. The dynamic analysis and design of a coastal structure can be succeeded provided the design load history for the wave impact is available. Since these types of data are very scarce, it is much more convenient to follow a method which is based on static analysis for the dynamic design procedure. Therefore, to facilitate the dynamic design of a vertical plate that is exposed to breaking wave impact, a multiplication factor called “dynamic magnification factor” is herein presented which is defined as the ratio of the maximum value of the dynamic response to that found by static analysis. The computational results of the present study show that the dynamic magnification factor is a useful ratio to transfer the results of static analysis to the dynamic design of a coastal plate for the maximum impact pressure conditions of p_max/γH₀≤18.     

Wave characteristic and morphologic effects on the onshore hydrodynamic response of tsunamis

While the destruction caused by a tsunami can vary significantly owing to near- and onshore controls, we have only a limited quantitative understanding of how different local parameters influence the onshore response of tsunamis. Here, a numerical model based on the non-linear shallow water equations is first shown to agree well with analytical expressions developed for periodic long waves inundating over planar slopes. More than 13,000 simulations are then conducted to examine the effects variations in the wave characteristics, bed slopes, and bottom roughness have on maximum tsunami run-up and water velocity at the still water shoreline. While deviations from periodic waves and planar slopes affect the onshore dynamics, the details of these effects depend on a combination of factors. In general, the effects differ for breaking and non-breaking waves, and are related to the relative shift of the waves along the breaking–non-breaking wave continuum. Variations that shift waves toward increased breaking, such as steeper wave fronts, tend to increase the onshore impact of non-breaking waves, but decrease the impact of already breaking waves. The onshore impact of a tsunami composed of multiple waves can be different from that of a single wave tsunami, with the largest difference occurring on long, shallow onshore topographies. These results demonstrate that the onshore response of a tsunami is complex, and that using analytical expressions derived from simplified conditions may not always be appropriate.     

Impulse modelling of wave impact pressures on vertical wall

Breaking waves on coastal structures cause high magnitude impact pressures which may be important for the structural stability. In estimating the impact pressure distribution on the wall, there have been a lot of theoretical and experimental work. The present study is concerned with a theoretical approach which is based on the pressure impulse, to find the impact pressures on vertical wall. The numerical solution of the governing equation is carried out using the boundary element method. The theoretical impact pressures are determined using the experimental values of impact pressure rising time. The computational results of the impact pressures from the pressure impulse model are found to agree well with the experimental data of an earlier study.