Wave flume

About: Wave flume is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1627 publications have been published within this topic receiving 23335 citations.

Regular water wave kinematics

Abstract: A proper knowledge on the water wave kinematics is important from several points of view. The need to accurately determine the wave forces on offshore structures has initiated the series of studies reported in this paper.

Observations of wave-induced pore pressure gradients and bed level response on a surf zone sandbar

Abstract: Horizontal and vertical pressure gradients may be important physical mechanisms contributing to onshore sediment transport beneath steep, near-breaking waves in the surf zone. A barred beach was constructed in a large-scale laboratory wave flume with a fixed profile containing a mobile sediment layer on the crest of the sandbar. Horizontal and vertical pore pressure gradients were obtained by finite-differences of measurements from an array of pressure transducers buried within the upper several centimeters of the bed. Co-located observations of erosion depth were made during asymmetric wave trials with wave heights between 0.10 m and 0.98 m, consistently resulting in onshore sheet flow sediment transport. The pore pressure gradient vector within the bed exhibited temporal rotations during each wave cycle, directed predominantly upwards under the trough and then rapidly rotating onshore and downwards as the wave front passed. The magnitude of the pore pressure gradient during each phase of rotation was correlated with local wave steepness and relative depth. Momentary bed failures as deep as 20 grain diameters were coincident with sharp increases in the onshore directed pore pressure gradients, but occurred at horizontal pressure gradients less than theoretical critical values for initiation of the motion for compact beds. An expression combining the effects of both horizontal and vertical pore pressure gradients with bed shear stress and soil stability is used to determine that failure of the bed is initiated at non-negligible values of both forces.

Simulation of Wave Overtopping of Maritime Structures in a Numerical Wave Flume

Abstract: A numerical wave flume based on the particle finite element method (PFEM) is applied to simulate wave overtopping for impermeable maritime structures. An assessment of the performance and robustness of the numerical wave flume is carried out for two different cases comparing numerical results with experimental data. In the first case, a well-defined benchmark test of a simple low-crested structure overtopped by regular nonbreaking waves is presented, tested in the lab, and simulated in the numerical wave flume. In the second case, state-of-the-art physical experiments of a trapezoidal structure placed on a sloping beach overtopped by regular breaking waves are simulated in the numerical wave flume. For both cases, main overtopping events are well detected by the numerical wave flume. However, nonlinear processes controlling the tests proposed, such as nonlinear wave generation, energy losses along the wave propagation track, wave reflection, and overtopping events, are reproduced with more accuracy in the first case. Results indicate that a numerical wave flume based on the PFEM can be applied as an efficient tool to supplement physical models, semiempirical formulations, and other numerical techniques to deal with overtopping of maritime structures.

Overtopping reduction in crownwall design

Abstract: This study for overtopping reduction in crownwall design presents several results of 2D (wave flume) and 3D (wave basin) tests on irregular wave overtopping of different configurations for breakwater sections were obtained by the Applied Hydrodynamics Institute (INHA) in order to improve the design of the small-craft harbour at San Sebastian in the North of Spain (fig.l). San Sebastian is one of the most well-known and beautiful tourist cities in Europe and for that reason aesthetic as well as environmental aspects of construction had to be taken into account.