Showing papers on "Wave flume published in 2021"

Eco-Engineering of Seawalls—An Opportunity for Enhanced Climate Resilience From Increased Topographic Complexity

Abstract: In the context of ‘green’ approaches to coastal engineering, the term 'eco-engineering' has emerged in recent years to describe the incorporation of ecological concepts (including ‘artificially water-filled depressions and surface textured tiles on seawalls and drilled holes in sea structures) into the conventional design process for marine infrastructures . Limited studies have evaluated the potential increase in wave energy dissipation resulting from the increased hydraulic roughness of ecologically modified sea defences which could reduce wave overtopping and consequent coastal flood risks, while increasing biodiversity. This paper presents results of small-scale laboratory investigations of wave overtopping on artificially roughened seawalls. Impulsive and non-impulsive wave conditions with two deep-water wave steepness values (= 0.015 and 0.06) are evaluated to simulate both swell and storm conditions in a two-dimensional wave flume, with an impermeable 1:20 foreshore slope. Measurements from a plain vertical seawall are taken as the reference case. The seawall was subsequently modified to include 10 further test configurations where hydraulic effects, reflective of ‘eco-engineering’ interventions, were simulated by progressively increasing seawall roughness with surface protrusions across three length scales and three surface densities. Measurements at plain a vertical seawall (reference condition) compared favorably to empirical predictions from the EurOtop II Design Manual and served as a validation of the experimental approach. Results from physical model experiments showed that increasing the length and/ or density of surface protrusions reduced overtopping on seawalls. Benchmarking of test results from experiments with modified seawalls to reference conditions showed that the mean overtopping rate was reduced by up to 100% (test case where protrusion length and density were maximum) under impulsive wave conditions. Results of this study highlight the potential for eco-engineering interventions on seawalls to mitigate extreme wave overtopping hazards by dissipating additional wave energy through increased surface roughness on the structure.

Upstream-propagating waves induced by steady current over a rippled bottom: theory and experimental observation

Abstract: We theoretically and experimentally investigate the mechanism underlying the generation of upstream-propagating waves induced by a steady current over a horizontal bottom with a patch of sinusoidal ripples. By considering the triad resonant wave–ripple interactions involving two unsteady wave components (which have the same frequency but different wavenumbers) and one bottom ripple component in the presence of a steady uniform current, we derive the general condition under which unsteady upstream- and/or downstream-propagating waves can be induced. The frequency and wavenumbers of the induced propagating waves are given by the triad resonance condition in terms of current speed, water depth and bottom ripple wavenumber. By means of a multiple-scale perturbation analysis, we obtain the nonlinear amplitude evolution equations governing the spatio-temporal evolution of resonance-generated waves. Based on these equations, we find that the amplitude of the generated upstream-propagating waves is dramatically amplified when the associated triad resonance occurs in the neighbourhood of the critical current speed/frequency (corresponding to zero group velocity of unsteady waves in the presence of a current). A series of laboratory experiments in a long wave flume with wide ranges of current speeds and water depths are conducted to verify the theory. The experiments confirm the observation of the phenomenon of upstream-propagating wave generation in a steady flow over a rippled bottom. In particular, the experimental measurements of the kinematics of upstream-propagating waves as well as the critical flow condition for the observation of such wave generation compare well with the theoretical prediction.

Physical modeling of the dynamics of a revetment breakwater built on reclaimed coral calcareous sand foundation in the South China Sea—tsunami wave

Abstract: In this study, taking the reclamation engineering in the South China Sea as the background, several wave flume experiments (geometrical similarity scale is set as 1:10) are performed to study the dynamics and the stability of a reclaimed calcareous sand foundation and the breakwater built on it, under the impacting of tsunami wave. Tsunami wave is similarly simulated by N wave in the wave flume. It is shown by the experimental results that the revetment breakwater has no visible displacement, and there is no significant deformation in the reclaimed coral sand foundation, regardless the foundation is in dense or loose state under tsunami wave attacking. Furthermore, there is indeed excess pore pressure generated in the reclaimed coral foundation with a maximum magnitude of 1.5 kPa, caused by the water overtopping or the seepage. It is found that the excess pore pressure has not caused liquefaction in the reclaimed calcareous sand foundation due to the fact that there is only one peak impacting for the tsunami wave-induced load, rather than a cyclic one. Finally, it is concluded that the reclaimed calcareous sand foundation and the breakwater built on it are basically stable under tsunami wave impacting. However, the excessive water overtopping would be a potential threat for the vegetation behind the breakwater, as well as for the underground desalinated water in the reclaimed lands.

Higher-order harmonic induced wave resonance for two side-by-side boxes in close proximity

Abstract: Wave resonance in a narrow gap formed by two boxes in the side-by-side arrangement is investigated by employing a numerical wave flume based on the OpenFOAM® package. In the present study, the main focus lies in the exploration of the nonlinear resonant behaviour induced by the second- and third-order harmonic components which occur around half and one third of the resonant frequencies. A wide range of incident wave frequencies is considered, by which the higher-order harmonic induced wave resonance at lower wave frequencies is discussed. By the harmonic analysis, it is revealed that at the resonant frequency the first-order harmonic component dominates the wave resonance and the second-order effect is minor, which coincides with the conclusion drawn in the previous study. However, around half or one third of the resonant frequencies, the first-order harmonic component is in good agreement with the linear potential flow solutions, but the second- or third-order harmonic component is significant, causing the corresponding higher-order harmonic induced wave resonance. In addition, the numerical results show that the second- and thirdorder harmonic induced wave resonances only influence the wave properties inside the narrow gap, such as the wave response in the narrow gap and the horizontal wave forces on the boxes. The wave responses around the two-box system, the vertical wave forces on the boxes and the reflection and transmission coefficients are hardly affected by the wave resonance around the corresponding half and one third of the resonant frequencies. The higher-order harmonic induced normalised wave elevation in the narrow gap increases with the increase of incident wave height, implying the increased influence of the free surface nonlinearity.

On the Evolution of Different Types of Green Water Events

Abstract: Green water events may present different features in the initial stage of interaction with the deck of a structure. It is therefore important to investigate the evolution of different types of green water, since not all the events interact with the deck at the same time. In this paper, the evolution of three types of green water events (dam-break, plunging-dam-break, and hammer-fist) are studied. The water surface elevations and volumes over the deck in consecutive green water events, generated by incident [wave trains in a wave flume, were analyzed using image-based methods. The results show multiple-valued water surface elevations in the early stage of plunging-dam-break and hammer-fist type events. Detailed experimental measurements of this stage are shown for the first time. The effect of wave steepness on the duration of the events, maximum freeboard exceedance, and volumes were also investigated. Although the hammer-fist type showed high freeboard exceedances, the plunging-dam-break type presented the largest volumes over the deck. Some challenges for further assessments of green water propagation are reported.

Breaking-Wave Induced Transient Pore Pressure in a Sandy Seabed: Flume Modeling and Observations

Abstract: Previous studies on wave-induced pore pressure in a porous seabed mainly focused on non-breaking regular waves, e.g., Airy linear waves or Stokes non-linear waves. In this study, breaking-wave induced pore pressure response in a sandy seabed was physically simulated with a large wave flume. The breaking-wave was generated by superimposing a series of longer waves onto the foregoing shorter waves at a specified location. Water surface elevations and the corresponding pore pressure in the process of wave breaking were measured simultaneously at three typical locations, i.e., at the rear, just at, and in front of the wave breaking location. Based on test results, characterization parameters are proposed for the wave surface elevations and the corresponding pore-pressures. Flume observations indicate that the wave height was greatly diminished during wave breaking, which further affected the pore-pressure responses. Moreover, the measured values of the characteristic time parameters for the breaking-wave induced pore-pressure are larger than those for the free surface elevation of breaking-waves. Under the action of incipient-breaking or broken waves, the measured values of the amplitude of transient pore-pressures are generally smaller than the predicted results with the analytical solution by Yamamoto et al. (1978) for non-breaking regular waves with equivalent values of characteristic wave height and wave period.

Virtual Level Analysis Applied to Wave Flume Experiments: The Case of Waves-Cubipod Homogeneous Low-Crested Structure Interaction

Abstract: This paper presents the use of virtual level (VL) probes as an alternative image-based approach to investigate the interaction of waves with coastal structures in wave flume experiments. These probes are defined as regions of interest located at specific positions along the horizontal domain of the images, in which edge interfaces are detected and, thus, their vertical motions can be obtained. To demonstrate the use of the methodology, a critical condition of breaking waves interacting with a Cubipod homogeneous low-crested structure (HLCS) in a two-dimensional framework was selected. With the video recorded from the experiments, image calibration, processing, and analysis stages were implemented to analyze the performance of the HLCS in reducing wave elevations and to study the stability of the armor units. The present approach can be extended to a wide range of coastal structures applications where the interface detection between components of the scene is useful to observe the behavior of coastal structures, increasing effectiveness and alternatives to acquire precise data in 2D experimental tests.

Numerical and small-scale physical modelling of wave transmission by wooden fences

Abstract: Mangrove forests, that often act as natural coastal defences, enormously suffered due to ongoing climate change and human disturbances. Thus, it is necessary to have a countermeasure to mitigate the loss of mangroves. Wooden fences are becoming a viable nature-based solution to protect vulnerable replanted mangrove forests. However, the wooden fence's hydraulic characteristics are not yet fully understood due to the complication of branches arrangement. In the present study, a small-scale wave flume modelling of wave damping by a wooden fence was constructed using the inner branches as an inhomogeneous arrangement tested in earlier flow-resistance experiments. The physical model results indicate that the wooden fence is highly effective on wave transmission and that the effectiveness in wave reduction depends on the relative fence thickness, B/Hi. To understand the scale effect on wave transmission further, the numerical model SWASH was used with the laboratory wave data. By applying the prior experiments' drag coefficient on steady flow, the uncalibrated numerical model gave a good agreement with the wave model results, with a root-mean-square error for the total transmitted wave heights of 4.7%. After validation, potential scale effects for small scale tests were determined from scaling simulations at both full scales and the applied 1:5 model scale. These simulations were performed for a fence porosity of 0.81, and different fence thicknesses to understand scale effects between model- and full-scale. Both wave reflection and transmission at model-scale are about 5% higher than full-scale results due to the increased drag coefficient and viscous effects. The effects of fence thickness and porosity were the same in large and small scale, and much larger than the error due to scale effects. Hence testing fence efficiency at physical small scale is regarded as a useful tool, together with numerical modelling.

Use of Nanosilica for Increasing Dune Erosion Resistance during a Sea Storm

Abstract: Dune recovery interventions that integrate natural, sustainable, and soft solutions have become increasingly popular in coastal communities. In the present study, the reliability of an innovative non-toxic colloidal silica-based solution for coastal sand dunes has been verified for the first time by means of laboratory experiments. An extensive experimental campaign aimed at studying the effectiveness of the use of nanosilica has been conducted in the 2D wave flume of the EUMER laboratory at the University of Salento (Italy). The study was first based on a horizontal seabed and then a cross-shore beach-dune profile was drawn similar to those generally observed in nature. Detailed measurements of wave characteristics and observed bed and cross-shore beach-dune profiles were analyzed for a wide range of wave conditions. In both cases, two sets of experiments were carried out. After the first set of experiments performed resembling the native conditions of the models composed with natural sand, the effects of the injection of the mineral colloidal silica-based grout were investigated. The observations show that mineral colloidal silica increases the mechanical strength of non-cohesive sediments reducing the volume of dune erosion, thus improving the resistance and longevity of the beach-dune system.

Adaptive fully nonlinear potential model for the free surface under compressible air pressure of oscillating water column devices

Abstract: A two dimensional fully nonlinear numerical wave flume is extended with a pneumatic model to compute the free surface flow inside the chamber of land-based Oscillating Water Column (OWC) devices. Potential theory and the Mixed Eulerian-Lagrangian method are employed to compute the fluid flow using the direct Boundary Element Method (BEM) enhanced by a non-uniform rational B-Spline function. Meanwhile, a pneumatic model is manipulated to obtain the instantaneous air pressure on the chamber's free surface. Spring-like behavior of a perfect gas through an adiabatic process and a linear power take-off mechanism are used in the pneumatic model that makes time derivative of the air pressure turns to a function of reciprocating air and fluid flows in the chamber. Therefore, temporary air pressure is taken into account on the fully nonlinear free surface boundary conditions implicitly along with the time marching algorithm. The hydrodynamic efficiency of an OWC interacting with second-order Stokes waves is compared with former studies to verify the present model. To assess the present model for simulating the air compressibility in a large-scale case study, the present solution is compared with experimental and mathematical results under an irregular wave. Afterwards, an OWC device is exposed to fifth-order Stokes waves in the flume to examine the numerical stability of computing the free surface flow outside and inside of the chamber.

High-resolution, large-scale laboratory measurements of a sandy beach and dynamic cobble berm revetment

Abstract: High quality laboratory measurements of nearshore waves and morphology change at, or near prototype-scale are essential to support new understanding of coastal processes and enable the development and validation of predictive models. The DynaRev experiment was completed at the GWK large wave flume over 8 weeks during 2017 to investigate the response of a sandy beach to water level rise and varying wave conditions with and without a dynamic cobble berm revetment, as well as the resilience of the revetment itself. A large array of instrumentation was used throughout the experiment to capture: (1) wave transformation from intermediate water depths to the runup limit at high spatio-temporal resolution, (2) beach profile change including wave-by-wave changes in the swash zone, (3) detailed hydro and morphodynamic measurements around a developing and a translating sandbar.

Laboratory investigations on wave attenuation characteristics of Rhizophora Mucronata poir using physical models with bottom friction

Abstract: Species specific hydrodynamic characterization is essential for assessing the suitability of various types of mangroves in coastal protection as the dissipation of wave energy within the mangroves is governed primarily by various aspects which are specific to the species to which they belong. In the present study a specific mangrove species was selected and its wave attenuation characteristics were studied with the help of scaled physical models under controlled wave and vegetation conditions in a laboratory wave flume. The plant was initially identified as Rhizophora Mucronata and the scaled models prepared had the same biomechanical properties as that of the parent plant. Effect of root soil was incorporated in scaled models as bottom friction. Wave heights were measured after the forest models to evaluate the wave attenuation. It was found that wave heights were following the exponential decay equation of Kobayashi et al. (1993) except for the cases which have incorporated bottom friction. For such cases exponential decay equation was modified by incorporating a new parameter ‘d/D50’. Drag coefficients (CD), characteristic of the species were also determined without incorporating and with incorporating the effect of bottom friction of root soil. It is seen that drag coefficients are following an inverse relation with non-dimensional numbers (Re and KC). Empirical relations were developed between CD and a modified Keulegan Carpenter number (modified considering mangrove root submergence and mean particle size) for predicting the drag coefficients specific to Rhizophora Mucronata species for a variety of wave and water level conditions.