Hydroelastic Simulation of Breaking Wave Impact on a Flexible Coastal Seawall

Abstract

The impact of breaking waves on an elastic vertical wall is investigated with a fully-coupled numerical model. The waves breaking on a 1:10 sloped bed is simulated with the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach with the stabilized k-ω model for turbulence closure. The deformations and stresses in the elastic vertical wall are investigated with the computational solid mechanics (CSM) approach. The CFD and CSM approaches are fully-coupled in the finite-volume-method-based OpenFOAM framework. The present approach is verified against an existing study of the interaction between non-breaking solitary waves and an elastic vertical wall. Good agreement is obtained. Then the breaking waves are simulated and their interaction with the elastic vertical wall is investigated. It is found that breaking waves can cause strong deformation and vibration of the elastic seawall. The oscillation frequency of the seawall is four times the wave frequency.