The Maximum Effect of Wind on Wave Overtopping at Rubble Mound Breakwaters with the Influence of the Slope and a Crest Element

The impact of climate change, particularly the rise in sea levels, obstructs the effectiveness of existing coastal structures. Additionally, climate change can also have an amplifying effect on wind speeds (Takagi & Esteban, 2013). Without proper control, the accumulation of changing environmental boundary conditions could lead to disastrous...

Wave Transmission over Artificial Reefs: A Physical Model Study

In this research, the influence of the permeability and the porosity of artificial reefs on wave transmission and the sheltered habitat of marine life is investigated. A physical model is used to find the answer to this question. <br/>The main finding of this research is that a hollow, perforated structure can act both as an artificial reef that...

The maximum wind effect on wave overtopping at dikes with crest elements

Climate change affects sea level rise and the safety of the people living behind seadikes. In order to prepare for this, several adaptation measures are available to reduce the overtopping discharge. Wave overtopping can be reduced by including roughness elements or adding a berm. Another possibility is to employ crest elements such as a...

Evaluation of new Eurocode ‘prEN1991-1-8’ on wave and current actions: Case study IJmuiden - Does the new Eurocode improve the current design practice of breakwaters and other coastal structures?

The Eurocodes are design codes, widely accepted throughout Europe, that provide guidelines on how to deal with loads, resistance, and uncertainty. For most type of structures, loads and materials, the Eurocode has been well developed. However, for the loads on coastal structures, caused by wave, water level and current actions, no such Eurocode...

The recirculation near Maasvlakte 2 in the Rhine ROFI: Assessing the influence of a manmade headland and baroclinic processes

In times of rapid urbanization, engineering interventions in coastal systems have become more common. It is important to understand the interplay of these engineered solutions with their natural environment to minimize hazardous side effects to our ecology, economy and coastal safety. In a numerical study by Rijnsburger (2021), a flow...

Experimental study on wave-induced scour in front of sloping coastal structures and the influence of bed protection

The erosion of the seabed in front of coastal structures induced by waves can lead to multiple types of failure instability or function of the structure. On this topic most research has been done into erosion in front of vertical structures. For sloping structures a knowledge gap exists in the understanding of the processes that lead to erosion...

Homogeneous detached composite breakwater: CFD study of the design sensitivities in the 2D geometrical layout using a detached homogeneous low-crested structure to reduce sea wall overtopping

In this research OpenFOAM is used to model and determine the complex hydrodynamic behaviour of a Homogeneous low-crested structure (HLCS) consisting of cubipod artificial concrete elements. The validated model is used to gain insight in the design sensitivities of a two dimensional cross sectional layout to reduce sea wall overtopping. HLCS and...

Effects of ventilations on coastal structures with overhangs subject to wave impacts

Coastal structures with horizontal overhangs are built due to design constraints, but wave loadings substantially increase under these confined geometries. Vertical structure elements, such as steel gates, are vulnerable to damage caused by impulsive wave impacts, potentially exposing the coastal zone to flooding and erosion. Existing formulas...

Damage assessment of coastal structures in climate change adaptation

Coastal areas around the world have attracted settlements and human activities since the early stages of the history until nowadays. This has introduced continuous modifications to the natural characteristics of these coastal regions by means of coastal structures and engineering interventions. The design of such coastal structures has evolved...

Morphological Impact of Coastal Structures

In many coastal engineering problems the application of coastal structures to resolve these problems seems to be a proper solution. In a lot of cases, however, the implementation of coastal structures does not lead to the expected situation. Erosion management operations may have unwanted impacts on a coastal system. Decisions on the most...

Toe structure for rubble mound breakwaters: Analysis of toe bund design tools and a method for toe rock stability description

This thesis investigates the stability of rocks in toe bunds for rubble mound breakwaters. Presently recommended design tools lack a reasonable degree of accuracy to assess required toe element dimensions. The goal of this research is to improve the insight in the physical process related to stability of toe bund elements under wave load....

Horizontal Large Eddy Simulation using Delft2D-MOR: The influence of large horizontal eddies on the shape, depth and extent of scour holes

With the morphological models that are in use today, such as Delft2D-MOR, the scour that is calculated near the tip of hard coastal structures like breakwaters and groynes is often underestimated. This is most likely due to the fact that large horizontal turbulent eddies, which are formed when flow goes round these structures, locally enhance...