Numerical investigation of the wave force on a partially immersed rectangular structure: Long waves over a flat bottom

TL;DR

This study uses numerical simulations to analyze how long surface waves exert force on a partially immersed rectangular structure, providing insights for hydrotechnical design and understanding wave-structure interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a nonlinear potential flow model to evaluate wave forces on partially immersed structures, considering various wave shapes and submergence levels.

Findings

Longer waves exert less force at small submergence

At large submergence, longer waves exert more force

Wave shape influences force distribution

Abstract

This paper describes the results from a numerical estimation of the force exerted by long surface waves on a fixed and partially immersed rectangular structure. The topic is connected with the need of making decisions on the design, placement and operation of hydrotechnical structures of this kind. The wave-structure interaction is simulated in the framework of a nonlinear potential flow model. The results obtained allow to determine the dependence of the hydrodynamic force on the length and amplitude of a single wave, the length and submergence of the structure. We compare the results obtained for different initial wave shapes, and consider the differences between the forces acting on a vertical wall and a partially immersed structure. In particular, it is shown that at relatively small submergence of the structure, longer waves affect it less, while at large submergence and in the case of wave-wall interaction, the opposite behaviour is observed.