Small-Scale Field Experiment on Wave Forces on Upright Breakwaters

Boccotti, Paolo; Arena, Felice; Fiamma, Vincenzo; Romolo, Alessandra; Barbaro, Giuseppe

doi:10.1061/(asce)ww.1943-5460.0000111

Cited by 23 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…The experiment conducted by the authors on the U-OWC breakwaters is analogous to that conducted by Boccotti et al (2012) [14] on traditional upright breakwaters. Figure 2 shows the cross section of the central caisson of both the breakwaters in two different panels.…”

Section: The Small-scale Model Of the U-owc Breakwatermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The aim of this paper is to check the applicability of the Boccotti (first order in the Stokes expansion) and Goda's formulas to calculate the wave pressure distributions on the front wall of a U-OWC. These formulas have been proved valid at predicting the extreme wave pressure distributions in the front wall of traditional upright breakwaters [1,14]. To this purpose, we put directly at sea a small-scale model of a U-OWC breakwater and measured the wave pressure on the wave-beaten wall.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Field Experiment on Wave Forces on an Energy-Absorbing Breakwater

Filianoti

Gurnari

2020

Energies

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The U-OWC is a caisson breakwater embodying a device for wave energy absorption. Under the wave action, the pressure acting on the upper opening of the vertical duct fluctuates, producing a water discharge alternatively entering/exiting the plant through the U-duct, formed by the duct and the chamber. The interaction between incoming waves and the water discharge alters the wave pressure distribution along the wave-beaten wall of this breakwater compared with the pressure distributions on a vertical pure reflecting wall. As a consequence, the horizontal wave forces produced on the breakwater are also different. A small scale U-OWC breakwater was put off the eastern coast of the Strait of Messina (Southern Italy) to measure the horizontal wave force. Experimental results were compared with Boccotti’s and Goda’s wave pressure formulas, carried out for conventional upright breakwaters, to check their applicability on the U-OWC breakwaters. Both models are suitable for design of U-OWC breakwaters even if they tend to overestimate by up to 25% the actual horizontal loads on the breakwater. Indeed, the greater the absorption of the energy is, the lower the wave pressure on the breakwater wall is.

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Section: The Small-scale Model Of the U-owc Breakwatermentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Field Experiment on Wave Forces on an Energy-Absorbing Breakwater

Filianoti

Gurnari

2020

Energies

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“…First of all, all the records of the experiment have been analysed to single out those with the occurrence of the overtopping waves and those without overtopping (see Boccotti et al, 2010). In the present paper only the records without the occurrence of overtopping have been considered.…”

Section: Validation Of the Theory With Experimental Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

A Small-Scale Field Experiment for the Validation of a Theory on Reflection of Nonlinear Short-Crested Wave Groups

Romolo

Arena

2011

Int. Conf. Coastal. Eng.

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A closed-form solution of free surface displacement and velocity potential for nonlinear short-crested (3D) wave groups interacting with a reflective sea wall is presented. The theory is applied to investigate the fluctuation wave pressures when an exceptionally high crest or deep trough occurs on the reflective wall. A characteristic behaviour has been observed. Due to non-linearity, on one hand, great reduction of the highest crest and enhancement of the deepest troughs on wave pressures are realized; on the other hand, the profiles show always a strong asymmetry between the absolute maxima and the minima and sometimes the formation of characteristic humped wave pressures corresponding to the impact on the structure of the highest wave crest. All the theoretical results have been validated through a smallscale field experiment carried out at the Natural Ocean Engineering Laboratory (N.O.E.L., www.noel.unirc.it) of Reggio Calabria (Italy).Keywords: nonlinear sea wave, reflection, short-crested wave groups, wave pressure, sea wall, upright breakwater INTRODUCTIONOne of the most basic issues of coastal engineering has been the estimation of the wave pressures and wave loads acting on a vertical sea wall.In the scientific literature, it is possible to find several theories and models, based on different approaches, formulated with the aim, on one hand, to describe as the most correctly as possible the wave mechanics of sea waves interacting with a reflective structure in the absence of overtopping and without considering breaking waves generating impulsive pressure, and on the other hand, to find the most accurate solution for the calculation of wave pressure distribution acting on the structure for practical engineering applications. Many experimental investigations have been also conducted to validate theoretical solutions.First order solutions of periodic or irregular waves, are important since they are the basic approach for the prediction of wave pressure. More accurate results turn out by considering higher order contributions. Through the periodic wave theory, solution of second-order was obtained by Saintflou (1928), and by Svendsen and Jonsson (1976); of third-order by Tadjbakhsh & Keller (1960); of fourthorder by Goda (1967Goda ( , 1999.Moreover, numerical models have been developed to validate analytical results and to investigate effects of higher order components. Numerical solutions with perturbation approximations up to thirdorder in wave steepness have been given by Jeng (2002), up to the 27th order by Roberts (1983a,b) and up to the 35th order by Marchant and Roberts (1987). Numerical solutions with Fourier approximation for short-crested waves up to 10th order have been derived by Roberts and Schwartz (1983), by Lin et al. (1987) and by Tsai et al. (1994).More recent numerical study with experimental comparison have been done by Kimmoun et al. (1999) and by Prabhkar and Sundar (2001).The problem of instability for the reflection of sea waves with the related effects and phenomenon was dealt, in...

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“…These experiments were carried out at different relative water depths. The wave force was measured by means of a set of pressure transducers on the mid-vertical section of the wall, and the results are given in Boccotti et al (2012a) and Arena (2008, 2013) (Figure 5). …”

Section: Laboratory and Experimental Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%