Academic literature on the topic 'Low-crested waves'

Low-crested (LC) rubble mound breakwaters are used for coastal protection. The main advantage of these structures is their mild aesthetic impact on the natural environment. As the waves approach and transmit over these structures, significant hydrodynamic processes occur in their proximal area, such as wave breaking, wave reflection, wave overtopping and transmission (Garcia et al., 2004). Many researchers have studied the hydrodynamics of flow in the vicinity of such structures, as well as the influence of their geometrical characteristics on the flow field. However, in most studies, the structures are either emerged or submerged, while the case in which the crest level of the breakwaters is at the still water level (SWL) has to be further investigated.

Breakwaters made of sand container is one of the most economical options for wave protection at coastal areas. These breakwaters have been adopted with mixed success at several locations in Malaysia. Nevertheless, the performance of these structure has not been properly studied and documented to date. This study is undertaken to study the wave transmission ability of the submerged sand container breakwater with respect to its width and height as well as the water depth. A number of experiments have been conducted in a wave flume to quantify the wave transmission coefficient of the test models of different layouts when exposed to regular waves. The experimental result has shown that the breakwater is effective in arresting the shorter period waves, particularly in shallow water. The height of the breakwater has to be increased in order to arrest the longer period waves.

The paper highlights the problem of evaluating the extreme surge response of a floating, deep water structure subjected to stochastic loading from concurrent wind and waves. Additional load effects associated with ocean currents are also briefly discussed. Both long-crested and short-crested waves are considered, whereas the wind field is assumed to be unidirectional. The probability density function (PDF) of the combined wave frequency and low frequency response of the structure, due to waves, is calculated by an eigenvalue analysis and convoluted with the corresponding PDF from the wind loads, to obtain the PDF of the global response. The necessity of employing full, biquadratic transfer functions to evaluate the low frequency part of the wave loads is amply documented. The effect of short-crested versus unidirectional seas on the TLP motion response is discussed at some length, along with various numerical aspects related to the mathematical modelling and to the convergence and accuracy of the obtained solutions. Numerical solutions are presented for a wide range of harsh weather type, environmental parameters.

The effects of boundaries on flexural wave propagation in plates with viscous damping are studied through spectral and finite element analyses of incident and reflected waves. The incident wave is generated by point impact and therefore has the complication of being circularly crested. Results show excellent agreement between finite element and spectral solutions for waves—with high and low damping—reflected from simply supported, clamped and free edges. In addition, the possibility of Rayleigh-type free edge waves are investigated.

A Boussinesq type numerical model was developed which can simulate both wave fields and current fields around permeable detached breakwaters. The validity of the model was verified through measurements of waves and nearshore currents in hydraulic experiments investigating reflection and transmission capability. The porosity of the structure was accounted by a friction term incorporating turbulent resistance. The combination of turbulent friction model and anisotropic diffusion type wave breaking model was found to reproduce wave fields around the detached breakwaters and nearshore current fields behind the structures with a good accuracy.

The combined action of environmental forcing (waves, coastal currents, sediment transport, e.t.c.), the continuously decreasing supply of coastal areas with sediment from rivers, as well as the intense anthropogenic activity, results in the appearance of severe erosion problems in coastal areas and constantly decreasing beach width. A frequently used coastal protection measure is the construction of detached breakwaters parallel to the coastline. Detached breakwaters have a direct effect on the incoming waves, which contributes to the control of coastal sediment transport, hence the morphodynamics of the coastal bed. There are many examples of such structures, the majority of which are emerged breakwaters. Recently, interest has been directed towards the construction of low-crested (LC) and submerged breakwaters due to the reduced construction cost and a more effective harmonization with the natural environment. These structures are characterized by wave overtopping and breaking over their crest in addition to all other coastal processes that are involved with emerged breakwaters. For the proper design of such structures, one critical aspect is the behavior of the induced flow in their vicinity due to their presence. To this purpose, several studies have been carried out in recent years. In particular, Petti et al. (1994) studied experimentally the large scale vortices developed by waves breaking above a submerged breakwater. Mory and Hamm (1997) performed measurements of wave height, surface elevation and wave generated currents around a detached breakwater for incoming regular and irregular waves. Kramer et al. (2005) performed a series of experimental measurements in order to study the waves - LC structure interaction, in terms of flow velocity and turbulence developing around such structures within the European Project DE.LO.S. Garcia et al. (2004), Losada et al. (2005), Johnson et al. (2005) e.t.c. used the database created within the DE.LO.S. project to develop and validate numerical codes for the simulation of wave-induced flow around LC breakwaters. The aim of the present study was the experimental study of the flow developed by waves in the vicinity of an LC rubble mound breakwater with crest level at the water line (zero freeboard). The geometrical scale of the physical model was 1/30. The breakwater was placed on a beach of constant slope 1/15, which is typical of steep beaches in Greece.

AbstractLow-frequency currents and eddies transport sediment, pathogens, larvae, and heat along the coast and between the shoreline and deeper water. Here, low-frequency currents (between 0.1 and 4.0 mHz) observed in shallow surfzone waters for 120 days during a wide range of wave conditions are compared with theories for generation by instabilities of alongshore currents, by ocean-wave-induced sea surface modulations, and by a nonlinear transfer of energy from breaking waves to low-frequency motions via a two-dimensional inverse energy cascade. For these data, the low-frequency currents are not strongly correlated with shear of the alongshore current, with the strength of the alongshore current, or with wave-group statistics. In contrast, on many occasions, the low-frequency currents are consistent with an inverse energy cascade from breaking waves. The energy of the low-frequency surfzone currents increases with the directional spread of the wave field, consistent with vorticity injection by short-crested breaking waves, and structure functions increase with spatial lags, consistent with a cascade of energy from few-meter-scale vortices to larger-scale motions. These results include the first field evidence for the inverse energy cascade in the surfzone and suggest that breaking waves and nonlinear energy transfers should be considered when estimating nearshore transport processes across and along the coast.

In this work, periodic lateral boundaries are developed in a time dependent mild-slope equation model, MILDwave, for the accurate generation of regular waves and irregular long and short crested waves in any direction. A single wave generation line inside the computational domain is combined with periodic lateral boundaries. This generation layout yields a homogeneous and thus accurate wave field in the whole domain in contrast to an L-shaped and an arc-shaped wave generation layout where wave diffraction patterns appear inside the computational domain as a result of the intersection of the two wave generation lines and the interaction with the lateral sponge layers. In addition, the performance of the periodic boundaries was evaluated for two different wave synthesis methods for short crested waves generation, a method proposed by Miles and a method proposed by Sand and Mynett. The results show that the MILDwave model with the addition of periodic boundaries and the Sand and Mynett method is capable of reproducing a homogeneous wave field as well as the target frequency spectrum and the target directional spectrum with a low computational cost. The overall performance of the developed model is validated with experimental results for the case of wave transformation over an elliptic shoal (Vincent and Briggs shoal experiment). The numerical results show very good agreement with the experimental data. The proposed generation layout using periodic lateral boundaries makes the mild-slope wave model, MILDwave, an essential tool to study coastal areas and wave energy converter (WEC) farms under realistic 3D wave conditions, due to its significantly small computational cost and its high numerical stability and robustness.

[ES] El cambio climático y la conciencia social sobre el impacto de las infraestructuras en el medio está llevando a la necesidad de diseñar diques en talud con cotas de coronación reducidas frente a eventos de rebase más extremos. Además, la mayoría de estos diques se construyen en zonas de profundidades reducidas, donde el oleaje rompe a causa de la limitación por fondo. Estudios recientes apuntan a la necesidad de considerar no sólo la caudal medio de rebase (q) sino también el máximo volumen individual de rebase (Vmax), el espesor de lámina de agua (OLT) y la velocidad del flujo de rebase (OFV) en el diseño de la cota de coronación de un dique en talud según criterios de rebase. No obstante, existen pocos estudios en la literatura científica centrados en Vmax en estructuras costeras sometidas a oleaje limitado por fondo. Además, estos estudios proporcionan resultados contradictorios en relación a la influencia de la limitación por fondo del oleaje sobre Vmax. En cuanto a OLT y OFV, no se han encontrado estudios en la literatura científica que permitan su predicción en diques en talud. En esta tesis doctoral, se han realizado ensayos físicos 2D en diques en talud rebasables (0.3≤Rc/Hm0≤2.5) sin espaldón y con tres mantos principales (Cubípodo®-1L, cubo-2L y escollera-2L) sobre dos pendientes de fondo suaves (m=2% and 4%) en condiciones de oleaje limitado por fondo (0.2≤Hm0/h≤0.9). Vmax junto con q son las variables más recomendadas en la literatura científica para diseñar la cota de coronación de diques en talud según criterios de rebase. En el presente estudio, los mejores resultados en la estimación de Vmax*=Vmax/(gHm0T012) se han obtenido empleando la función de distribución Weibull de dos parámetros con un coeficiente de determinación R2=0.833. Durante la fase de diseño de un dique en talud, es necesario predecir q para calcular Vmax cuando se emplean los métodos dados en la literatura científica. Por tanto, se debe estimar q con fines de diseño si no se dispone de observaciones directas. En caso de emplear la red neuronal CLASH NN para estimar q (R2=0.636), la bondad de ajuste de la función de distribución Weibull de dos parámetros propuesta en esta tesis para predecir Vmax* es R2=0.617. Así, el ratio entre Vmax* medido y estimado cae dentro del rango de 1/2 a 2 (banda de confianza del 90%) cuando se emplea q estimado con CLASH NN. Los nuevos estimadores desarrollados en la presente disertación proporcionan resultados satisfactorios en la predicción de Vmax* con un método más simple que aquellos propuestos en la literatura científica. No se ha encontrado una influencia significativa de la pendiente de fondo ni de la limitación por fondo del oleaje sobre Vmax* en este estudio. OLT y OFV están directamente relacionados con la estabilidad hidráulica de la coronación del dique y la seguridad peatonal frente a rebase. Por tanto, se requiere estimar OLT y OFV en la coronación del dique para diseñar apropiadamente su cota de coronación empleando criterios de rebase. En este estudio, se han empleado redes neuronales para desarrollar nuevos estimadores explícitos que permiten predecir OLT y OFV superados por el 2% del oleaje incidente con un alto coeficiente de determinación (0.866≤R2≤0.867). El número de cifras significativas apropiado para los coeficientes experimentales de dichos estimadores se ha determinado en base a su variabilidad. El punto óptimo en el que las características del oleaje deben ser estimadas para predecir OLT y OFV se ha identificado a una distancia de 3h desde el pie de la estructura (siendo h la profundidad a pie de dique). La pendiente de fondo tiene influencia sobre OLT y OFV. Los valores más extremos de OLT y OFV se han descrito empleando las distribuciones Exponencial de un parámetro y Rayleigh, respectivamente, con resultados satisfactorios (0.803≤R2≤0.812).
[CA] El canvi climàtic i la consciència social sobre l'impacte de les infraestructures al medi està portant a la necessitat de dissenyar dics en talús amb cotes de coronació reduïdes front a esdeveniments d'ultrapassament més extrems. A més, la majoria dels dics es construeixen en zones amb profunditats reduïdes on l'onatge es trenca a causa de la limitació per fons. Estudis recents apunten a la necessitat de considerar no solament el cabal mitjà de sobrepasse (q) sinó també el màxim volum individual de sobrepasse (Vmax), l'espessor de la làmina d'aigua (OLT) i la velocitat del flux de sobrepasse (OFV) pel disseny de la cota de coronació d'un dic en talús segons criteris de sobrepasse. No obstant, existeixen pocs estudis a la literatura científica centrats en Vmax en estructures costeres sotmeses a onatge limitat per fons. Addicionalment, aquests estudis proporcionen resultats contradictoris en relació a la influència de la limitació per fons de l'onatge sobre Vmax. Quant a OLT i OFV, no s'han trobat estudis a la literatura científica que permeten la seua predicció a dics en talús. En aquesta tesi doctoral, s'han realitzat assajos físics 2D amb dics en talús amb sobrepassos rellevants (0.3≤Rc/Hm0≤2.5) sense espatlló i amb tres elements al mantell principal (Cubípode-1L, cubs-2L i esculleres-2L) ubicats sobre pendents de fons suaus (m=2% i 4%) en condicions d'onatge limitat pel fons (0.2≤Hm0/h≤0.9). Vmax conjuntament amb q són les variables més recomanades a la literatura científica per dissenyar la cota de coronació en dics en talús segons criteris d'ultrapassament. Al present estudi, els millors resultats en l'estimació de Vmax*=Vmax/(gHm0T012) s'han obtingut utilitzant la funció de distribució Weibull de dos paràmetres amb un elevat coeficient de determinació R2=0.833. Durant la fase de disseny d'un dic en talús, és necessari predir q per calcular Vmax quan s'utilitzen els mètodes donats a la literatura científica. Per tant, es deu estimar q amb fins de disseny si no es disposa d'observacions directes. Si s'aplica la xarxa neuronal de CLASH NN per estimar q (R2=0.636), la bondat d'ajust de la funció de distribució Weibull de dos paràmetres proposada a aquesta tesi per predir Vmax* és R2=0.617. Així doncs, el ràtio entre el Vmax* mesurat i estimat es troba dins del rang de 1/2 a 2 (banda de confiança del 90%) quan s'usa q predit amb CLASH NN. Els nous estimadors desenvolupats a aquesta dissertació proporcionen resultats satisfactoris en la predicció de Vmax* amb un mètode més senzill que aquells proposats a la literatura científica. No s'ha trobat una influència significativa de la pendent de fons ni de la limitació de l'onatge per fons sobre Vmax* a aquest estudi. OLT i OFV estan directament relacionats amb l'estabilitat hidràulica de la coronació de dics i la seguretat de vianants front a ultrapassaments. Per tant, es requereix estimar OLT i OFV en la coronació de dics per dissenyar apropiadament la seua cota de coronació utilitzant criteris de sobrepasse. En aquest estudi, s'han usat xarxes neuronals per desenvolupar nous estimadors explícits que permeten predir OLT i OFV superats pel 2% de l'onatge incident amb un elevat coeficient de determinació (0.866≤R2≤0.867). El nombre de xifres significatives apropiat per als coeficients experimentals dels mencionats estimadors s'ha determinat basant-se en la seua variabilitat. El punt òptim on determinar les característiques de l'onatge deuen ser estimades per predir OLT i OFV s'ha identificat a una distància de 3h des del peu de l'estructura (on h és la profunditat a peu de dic). La pendent de fons té influència sobre OLT i OFV. Els valors més extrems de OLT i OFV s'han descrit amb les distribucions Exponencial d'un paràmetre i Rayleigh, respectivament, amb resultats satisfactoris (0.803≤R2≤0.812).
[EN] Climate change and the social concern about the impact of infrastructures is leading to mound breakwaters with reduced crest freeboards facing higher extreme overtopping events. In addition, most mound breakwaters are built in the surf zone where depth-limited wave breaking takes place. Recent studies point out the need of considering not only the mean wave overtopping discharge (q) but also the maximum individual wave overtopping volume (Vmax), the overtopping layer thickness (OLT) and the overtopping flow velocity (OFV) when designing mound breakwater crest elevation using overtopping criteria. However, few studies in the literature are focused on Vmax on coastal structures under depth-limited breaking wave conditions. In addition, those few studies report contradictory conclusions regarding the significance of depth-limited breaking waves on Vmax. With respect to OLT and OFV, no studies are found in the literature for their prediction on mound breakwaters. In this PhD thesis, 2D physical model tests were conducted on overtopped mound breakwaters (0.3≤Rc/Hm0≤2.5) without a crown wall armored with three armor layers (Cubipod®-1L, cube-2L and rock-2L) on two gentle bottom slopes (m=2% and 4%) in depth-limited breaking wave conditions (0.2≤Hm0/h≤0.9). Vmax together with q are the most recommended variables in the literature to design mound breakwater crest elevation based on overtopping criteria. In the present study, the 2-parameter Weibull distribution provides the best results when estimating Vmax*=Vmax/(gHm0T012) with coefficient of determination R2=0.833. During the design phase of a mound breakwater, q is needed to predict Vmax using methods given in the literature. Thus, q must be estimated for design purposes when direct observations are not available. If CLASH NN is used to estimate q (R2=0.636), the goodness-of-fit of the 2-parameter Weibull distribution proposed in this thesis to predict Vmax* is R2=0.617. Hence, the ratio between the estimated and measured Vmax* falls within the range 1/2 to 2 (90% error band) when q is predicted using CLASH NN. The new estimators derived in this study provide satisfactory estimations of Vmax* with a method simpler than those found in the literature. Neither the bottom slope nor the depth-induced wave breaking seem to significantly influence the dimensionless Vmax* in this study. OLT and OFV are directly related to the hydraulic stability of the armored crest and the pedestrian safety. Thus, OLT and OFV are required to properly design crest elevation using overtopping criteria. Neural Networks (NNs) are used in this study to develop new explicit unbiased estimators for the OLT and OFV exceeded by 2% of the incoming waves with a high coefficient of determination (0.866≤R2≤0.867). The appropriate number of significant figures of the empirical coefficients of such estimators is selected according to their variability. The optimum point where wave characteristics are determined to predict OLT and OFV was identified at a distance of 3h from the toe of the structure (where h is the water depth at the toe of the structure). The bottom slope does influence both OLT and OFV. The most extreme values of OLT and OFV are described with the 1-parameter Exponential and Rayleigh distribution functions, respectively, with satisfactory results (0.803≤R2≤0.812).
Al Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, por la financiación brindada con el programa de Formación de Profesorado Universitario (FPU16/05081). Al Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, por la financiación de los proyectos ESBECO (EStabilidad hidráulica del manto, BErmas y COronación de diques en talud con rebase y rotura por fondo, BIA2015-70436-R) y HOLOBREAK (Estabilidad Hidráulica y Transmisión de Diques Rompeolas Homogéneos de Baja Cota Diseñados a Rotura por Fondo, RTI2018-101073-B-I00-AR).
Mares Nasarre, P. (2021). Overtopping flow on mound breakwaters under depth-limited breaking wave conditions [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/163154
TESIS

Operability of offshore moored ships can be affected by low frequency wave loads. The low frequency motions of a moored ship may limit the uptime of an offshore structure such as an LNG offloading terminal. The wave loads that cause the main excitation of these low frequency motions are usually computed using second order wave drift theory for long crested waves, which assumes that the low frequency components are only related to waves coming from the same direction. In this method short crested seas are dealt with as a summation of long crested seas, but no interaction between the wave components traveling in different directions is usually taken into account. This paper describes the results of a study to the effect of 2nd order low frequency wave loads in directional seas. For this study the drift forces related to the interaction between waves coming from different directions is also included. This is done by computing the quadratic transfer functions (QTF) for all possible combinations of wave components (frequencies and directions). Time traces of drift forces are generated and compared to the results without wave directional interaction after which the motions of an LNG carrier are simulated. A sensitivity study is carried out towards the number of direction steps and the water depth. Finally the motions of an LNG carrier in shallow water (15m water depth) are simulated and mooring forces are compared for various amounts of wave spreading.

Wave-induced vibrations, such as whipping and springing, of container carriers have been attracting much attention because of their effects on hull-girder bending moments and fatigue damage. An investigation has been carried out comparing experimental measurements and numerical predictions of symmetric wave-induced loads (i.e. vertical bending moment) of the latest River-sea link container ship design, LPP = 130 m. The dual mission characteristics, namely rivers and open seas, make this type of ship an extremely interesting type of container carrier, particularly in terms of springing and whipping. A backbone beam segmented model is used in the experiments with the focus on springing- and whipping-induced vertical bending moments, for the model travelling at Fn = 0.21 in regular and long-crested irregular head waves, of 2.5m full-scale height or significant wave height. In addition higher order (harmonics) vertical bending moments (VBM) are also extracted from the experiments. The measurements are taken at amidships and the fore and aft quarters. Numerical predictions, for both the full-scale vessel and segmented model, are obtained using the two-dimensional linear hydroelasticity theories, where the hull structure is idealized as a non-uniform beam and the fluid actions evaluated using strip theory. The measured model test results, in relatively moderate conditions based on a particular area of operation for this low-draught vessel, indicate that nonlinear springing accounts for a significant portion of the total wave-induced bending moments in regular and, to an extent, irregular waves and slamming effects are small due to the operational area selected. The numerical predictions in regular waves show that linear hydroelasticity analysis can only predict similar trends in the variation of the VBM and the resonance peak. On the other hand, in long crested irregular waves the linear hydroelasticity analysis provides peak statistics that are commensurate with the measurements. The numerical predictions were obtained for two variants, having L = LPP and L = 0.9 LPP, the latter corresponding to the length of the backbone.

It is well established that the modulational instability enhances the probability of occurrence for extreme events if waves are long crested. Recent studies, however, have shown that the coexistence of directional wave components can substantially reduce its effects. Here, direct numerical simulations of the Euler equations are used to investigate whether the modulational instability may produce significant deviations from second-order statistical properties of surface gravity waves when short crestness (i.e., directionality) is accounted for. The case of a broad-banded directional wave field (i.e. wind sea) is investigated. Results will show that the distribution proposed by Forristall [1] provides a good estimate of the simulated crest height also at low probability levels.