INDIVIDUAL WAVE EFFECTS ON COASTAL STRUCTURE DAMAGE DURING WINDSTORMS

Abstract

In hazard assessment studies that evaluate the damage caused to coastal structures by windstorm-generated surge and waves, the standard approach has been to estimate structural loading by applying phase-averaged wave propagation models (e.g., SWAN, STWAVE) and storm surge models (e.g., ADCIRC), coupled or not with each other. Bare-earth “Digital Elevation Models” (DEMs) have typically been used as a basis for model grid development, with sometimes empirical adjustments being made to beach profiles or dune crest levels to account for storm-induced erosion. In recent work, the latter approach has been improved by including real time morphodynamic changes in simulations, using models such as XBeach (e.g., Schambach 2017; Schambach et al., 2017), which are still based on the wave action conservation equation, including semi-empirical parameterizations of wave breaking and many formulations based on linear wave theory (e.g., phase/group velocity, radiation stresses,…), as well as low-order wave-wave interaction terms. Finally, structural damage has typically been estimated based on empirical damage curves, developed based on field surveys, that use flow depth and controlling wave crest height as inputs (e.g., Grilli et al., 2017). Neglected in this modeling approach, however, are dynamic set-up and runup effects, as well as strongly nonlinear wave interactions that occur near and in the surf and swash zones.