Numerical Simulation of Floating Pontoon Breakwater with ANSYS AQWA Software and Validation of the Results with Laboratory Data

Abstract

The application of engineering software’s to design and analyze civil infrastructures is increasing. In this regard, computational fluid dynamics software’s used for the examination of the interaction of coastal and marine structures with waves play a unique role in the implementation of marine projects, since the operating costs of sea is significantly higher than that of land. In the present study, two models of floating pontoon breakwaters (i.e. simple pontoon as the first model and step pontoon as the second model) have been simulated with the application of ANSYS AQWA software. The main indicator of breakwater performance is the wave transmission coefficient (i.e. the ratio of the wave height on the back of the breakwater to the wave height entering the coastal zone) which is examined with the consideration of the changes occurring in the physical parameters such as draft, period, and amplitude of waves. The software solves the wave-structure interaction problem with the application of the boundary element method based on Laplace equation and presents water level meter as the output. Finally, the numerical results and the output of the software have been compared with the laboratory results to pursue the verification purpose. Laboratory data were extracted by the same team of researchers at Science and Research branch of Islamic Azad University. Furthermore, the obtained errors and deviations as well as the best possible performance and status of breakwaters at different waves have been specified.