Numerical study of wave overtopping discharges at sea-dikes with low crown-walls

Abstract

      Models based on non-linear shallow water (NLSW) and Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) equations are applied to compute wave overtopping rates at sea-dikes with low vertical crown-walls. Existing data from wave overtopping experiments of irregular waves are used to validate the models. Thanks to pragmatic wall schematization approaches a simple NLSW model can effectively be applied to predict the right wave overtopping discharges for cases of relatively low walls. The RANS model is found to reliably predict average wave overtopping discharges for walls with any complex geometric configurations, however with very low computational efficiency.