Numerical modelling of wave-structure interaction with rubble-mound breakwaters and dynamic mesh optimisation
File(s)
Author(s)
Via-Estrem, Lluis
Type
Thesis
Abstract
The coastal engineering community has historically relied on physical experiments for developing analytical methods and validating the design of coastal structures. However, the scale effects and costs associated with physical modelling have limited the progress in some key areas such as the design of rubble mounds. These structures are commonly used as breakwaters for harbours and coastal protection, the latter becoming more important in the recent years due to sea level rise. Computational modelling has become a realistic alternative over the past two decades with the increase of computer power and can already simulate many of the processes involved in wave-structure interaction at a low cost and without scale effects.
While numerical modelling of structural responses such as wave opertopping are already accepted methods by the coastal engineering community for designing and evaluating new and existing structures, the assumptions and approaches taken for obtaining such responses cast aside the potential capabilities of evaluating rubble mounds stability.
Over the past few years new developments in the Applied Modelling & Computation Group (AMCG) at Imperial College on the FDEM model Solidity (www.Solidityproject.com) have lead to the implementation of different tools for building and analysing numerical rubble mound structures. In the meantime, great progress has been made on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) FEM AMCG codes, implementing new approaches for highly accurate interface capture and tracking and mesh optimisation with a reduced computational cost.
The purpose of this research is to further develop, optimise and validate AMCG FEM codes for simulations of Numerical Wave Tanks (NWT) and Wave-Structure Ineraction (WSI) with rubble mounds, to develop numerical rock armour layer building capabilities, and finally to provide a few application cases such as measuring scale effects or the impact of sea level rise. Once ready and fully validated, such technologies have the potential to become a more accurate and cheaper alternative for rubble mound breakwaters design than physical modelling.
While numerical modelling of structural responses such as wave opertopping are already accepted methods by the coastal engineering community for designing and evaluating new and existing structures, the assumptions and approaches taken for obtaining such responses cast aside the potential capabilities of evaluating rubble mounds stability.
Over the past few years new developments in the Applied Modelling & Computation Group (AMCG) at Imperial College on the FDEM model Solidity (www.Solidityproject.com) have lead to the implementation of different tools for building and analysing numerical rubble mound structures. In the meantime, great progress has been made on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) FEM AMCG codes, implementing new approaches for highly accurate interface capture and tracking and mesh optimisation with a reduced computational cost.
The purpose of this research is to further develop, optimise and validate AMCG FEM codes for simulations of Numerical Wave Tanks (NWT) and Wave-Structure Ineraction (WSI) with rubble mounds, to develop numerical rock armour layer building capabilities, and finally to provide a few application cases such as measuring scale effects or the impact of sea level rise. Once ready and fully validated, such technologies have the potential to become a more accurate and cheaper alternative for rubble mound breakwaters design than physical modelling.
Version
Open Access
Date Issued
2021-04
Date Awarded
2022-03
Copyright Statement
Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial NoDerivatives Licence
Advisor
Latham, John-Paul
Salinas, Pablo
Xiang, Jiansheng
Pain, Christopher
Publisher Department
Earth Science & Engineering
Publisher Institution
Imperial College London
Qualification Level
Doctoral
Qualification Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)