Influence of water depth on the breaking wave impact on vertical and sloping walls

Abstract

Experimental data are presented for the impact pressures, impact forces and deflections from oscillatory waves breaking (by plunging) directly on vertical, 10° and 30° backward inclined walls with 1 10 foreshore slope. The influence of the water depth on the maximum impact pressure, maximum impact force and maximum wall deflection is examined and it can be seen that these three quantities reasonably satisfy the log-normal probability distribution for the different water depths. It is also found that, overall, the magnitudes of the maximum impact pressure, maximum impact force and maximum wall deflection decrease rapidly as the water depth in front of the wall becomes smaller or greater than the depth in which impinging of the breaker front is presumed to occur almost with a parallel face to the wall during the wave breaking process. Within the range of present water depth conditions, the most frequent location of the maximum impact pressure for the three walls remains almost at the still-water level. Based on a wall deflection criterion, a range of water depth is determined where the wave breaking is likely to cause serious consequences on the wall.