Numerical modelling of green-water overtopping flow striking a pedestrian on the crest of a sloped coastal structure

Abstract

Some previous research on overtopping flow striking a pedestrian on the crest of coastal structures approximated a standing pedestrian as a cylinder, which may be oversimplified, so this study investigated the hydrodynamic process of overtopping flow striking a realistic pedestrian through both laboratory experiments and numerical simulations. Three postures, i.e., standing, sitting, and lying, were considered. The orientation of the human body was also varied to investigate the influence. The scaled experiments were conducted in a wave flume using a 3D-printed human model. The inline overtopping impact force on the model was collected using a force sensor. The data was used to validate a high-fidelity 3D numerical simulation using OpenFOAM. A good model-data agreement was demonstrated. For the standing posture, the inline force varies with the orientation, due to the change of total impact area. The largest inline forces for the sitting and lying postures are about three and four times greater than that for the standing posture due to increased impact area, respectively.