Ricerc@Sapienza

This paper describes 2-D numerical simulations aiming to reproduce the pressure impulse named confined-crest impact (Castellino et al., 2018), which occurs when a recurved parapet wall and non-breaking wave conditions are interacting. The simulations are carried out by using the IH2VOF and IHFOAM, the latter developed as OpenFOAM additional library. The results show a large increase of the pressures and forces value when the recurved part of the vertical parapet results completely occluded by the non-breaking wave crest.

This paper aims at investigating the intensity of the load applied by non-breaking waves on the recurved parapet wall of vertical breakwaters. For this purpose, 2-D experiments were carried out on a simple vertical breakwater physical model with four different geometries of the parapet (with an “exit angle” of recurve of 0° 45° 60° and 90°), under both regular and irregular waves. The tests showed the presence of loads of a quasi-static nature and loads with a typical church roof impulsive behaviour, depending on the (non breaking) wave characteristics and on the shape of the parapet.