Numerical Analysis of Breakwaters Turbulence Under Coastal Wave Actions

Abstract

Due to the coastal wave actions, Louisiana coastline has been experiencing serious depletion of wetlands over decades. The loss of wetlands is threating the environment and the economic development of Louisiana. Therefore, breakwaters are designed to protect the coastline from coastal erosion and wetland losses by dissipating the energy of waves and changing the transport of sediment which is brought by the waves. The objective of this research was to give a numerical analysis of 2-dimensional breakwaters under wave actions and 3-dimensional breakwaters turbulence characteristics under coastal wave actions using CFD simulation. In this research, three breakwater structures are tested: a solid panel with no holes, a panel with three holes, and a panel with eight holes. The breakwater designs aim to allow sediment pass through the holes, to deposit and accumulate sediment at target areas, and to reduce wave actions. There were three different cases simulated with wave actions and without wave actions in this study, each case using a different panel design. The results of this study were mainly compared with the 2-dimensional CFD simulation analysis conducted previously to prove the accuracy.