Search Results (5)

The construction of coastal infrastructure alters the natural hydrodynamics, leading to irreversible changes in coastal morphology. Furthermore, there has been an increasing concern about global climate change in recent years, which requires examining how climatic shifts impact the mechanisms that govern oceanic processes, the trends in morphological changes, the extent of the impacts, and the corresponding weightings assigned to coastal infrastructure. This study aims to assess the impacts of climate change on the wave distribution and coastal morphology around the two breakwaters perpendicular to the shoreline of Hsinchu Fishery Harbor in Taiwan at the end of the 21st century. The findings reveal that, by the end of the century, during extreme climatic events, such as typhoons (increasing the maximum wind speed and extreme sea levels), the wave heights around the Hsinchu Fishery Harbor, compared to the present day, may increase by 5.94% to 81.25%. Regarding the potential coastal morphological changes, erosion trends are evident around the harbor, but there is a pronounced tendency toward accretion in the sheltered area. The impact range and weightings of the Hsinchu Fishery Harbor breakwaters under climate change on coastal morphology were then determined based on historical bathymetric data and simulated bathymetric changes using the empirical orthogonal function (EOF) method. Under different-intensity climate change scenarios, the EOF analysis indicates no significant differences in the impact range and weightings on coastal morphological changes. In light of the analysis results, it is evident that structures have a much more substantial impact on coastal morphological change than climate change does. Full article

This paper presents a combined analytical and numerical (CAN) model to simulate the scattering of cnoidal waves by a fixed and partially immersed box-type breakwater. A set of Boussinesq equations are solved in the outer region using the finite-difference method to model the propagation of cnoidal waves and their subsequent reflection and transmission after encountering the breakwater. The two-dimensional (2D) velocity potential in the inner region beneath the body is derived analytically by solving the equations formulated from the orthogonality of eigenfunctions and the interfacial matching conditions. Experimental measurements on the wave profiles were carried out in a wave tank to verify the model solutions. Reflected and transmitted wave elevations obtained from the present CAN model match closely with the measured data. Additionally, the calculated horizontal and vertical forces on the body using the developed CAN model are in reasonable agreement with those from a potential 2D flow-based fully nonlinear wave model (FNWM). The method and proposed CAN model, if applied to a simple parametric investigation, can provide the expected trends in terms of applied forces, wave reflection, and transmission. Full article

In the present study, the hydrodynamic efficiency of a cylindrical wave energy converter (WEC) of vertical symmetry axis and arranged in front of a reflecting orthogonal breakwater is explored. The idea is based on exploiting the anticipated amplification of the scattered and the reflected wave fields originating from the presence of the vertical walls, towards increasing the WEC’s wave power absorption due to the walls’ wave reflections. Two types of converters are examined, namely the heaving device and the oscillating water column (OWC) device, assuming linear potential theory. The associated diffraction-, motion-, and pressure-radiation problems are solved using axisymmetric eigenfunction expansions for the velocity potential around the WECs by properly accounting for the wave field’s modification due to the walls’ presence. To this end, a theoretical formulation dealing with the evaluation of the converter’s performance is presented accounting for the coupling between the WEC and the reflecting vertical walls. The results depict that the amount of the harvested wave power by the WEC in front of an orthogonal wall is amplified compared to the absorbed wave power by the same WEC in the open sea. Full article

This study investigates the effect of an orthogonal-shaped reflecting breakwater on the hydrodynamic characteristics of a vertical cylindrical body. The reflecting walls are placed behind the body, which can be conceived as a floater for wave energy absorption. Linear potential theory is assumed, and the associated diffraction and motion radiation problems are solved in the frequency domain. Axisymmetric eigenfunction expansions of the velocity potential are introduced into properly defined ring-shaped fluid regions surrounding the floater. The hydrodynamic interaction phenomena between the body and the adjacent breakwaters are exactly taken into account by using the method of images. Results are presented and discussed concerning the exciting wave forces on the floater and its hydrodynamic coefficients, concluding that the hydrodynamics of a vertical cylindrical body in front of an orthogonally shaped breakwater differ from those in unbounded waters. Full article

In 1997, in front of the Pescara Harbour (Italy), a detached breakwater was constructed. In the successive years, the sediment transport due to the combined action of waves and coastal currents, in the area between the detached breakwater and the entrance of the Pescara Harbour, produced an accumulation of about $\mathrm{40,000}{ \mathrm{m}}^3$ of sediment per year. In this paper, the causes of the accretion of the bottom elevation in front of the Pescara Harbour entrance and the effects produced by the existing detached breakwater are investigated. The effects on the sediment transport of the introduction of a new submerged breakwater designed to protect the entrance of the harbour from sediment siltation are investigated. In particular, the ability of the designed submerged breakwater, located orthogonally to the longshore current, to intercept the aforementioned solid material and to significantly reduce the accretion of the bottom in the area in front of the harbour entrance, was numerically verified. Numerical simulations were carried out by means of a model of the bottom-change composed of two sub-models: a two-dimensional phase resolving model that is used to calculate the fluid dynamic variables changing inside the wave period and a second sediment transport sub-model to simulate the bottom changes, in which the suspended sediment concentration is calculated by the wave-averaged advection–diffusion equation. The equations of motion, in which the vector and tensor quantities are expressed in Cartesian components, are written in a generalised curvilinear coordinate system. The fully nonlinear Boussinesq equations are written in an integral form and used to simulate the velocity fields. Full article