Fully-coupled hydroelastic modeling of a deformable wall in waves

Abstract

The hydroelastic behavior of a vertical wall in periodic waves is investigated using a fully-coupled computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and computational solid mechanics (CSM) model. The present numerical model is verified against previous numerical and experimental results on wave evolution and structural displacement. Then the hydrodynamic characteristics and the structural responses of an elastic wall in periodic waves are parametrically investigated. It is demonstrated that wave reflection, run-up, and loading decrease as the wall becomes more flexible. The decreases also occur when the waves become shorter. With nonlinear wave propagation, both the displacement and the stress of the wall are larger in the shoreward direction than those in the seaward direction. The wall displacement has the same frequency as the exciting waves and the stress increases with the decrease of the ratio of the wave frequency to the wall’s natural frequency. Considering the effect of flexibility, empirical formulae are proposed for predicting the wave run-up, loading, and maximum displacement of the wall. Besides, the optimization of the flexible wall is conducted by taking into account both the defense performance (i.e., transmission coefficient) and the structural integrity (i.e., maximum von Mises stress). Finally, the effect of the material damping is studied, which shows that the material damping has a negligible effect on the interaction between periodic waves and the elastic structure. • The hydroelastic interaction between periodic waves and an elastic vertical wall is investigated using an advanced computational approach. • The structural stiffness and the ratio of the wave frequency to the wall’s natural frequency can largely affect the wave-wall interaction. • Empirical formulae are proposed for wave run-up, loading, and wall displacement in periodic waves. • Optimization of flexibility is performed considering the wave transmission and the stress within the vertical elastic wall. • The effect of the material damping is found to be negligible on periodic waves interacting with an elastic wall.