Simulation of a tsunami-like solitary wave interacting with a piled baffle penetrated breakwater

Abstract

A piled baffle penetrated breakwater is a widely used free surface type breakwater that is prone to instabilities under extreme waves, such as tsunamis. The studies of interactions between the tsunami-like solitary waves and the piled baffle penetrated breakwaters are rare in the literature. In this paper, a modified mass source method is proposed to simulate interactions between a piled baffle penetrated breakwater and tsunami-like solitary waves. The modified mass source method has higher accuracy than the original mass source method in simulating highly non-linear waves and the accuracy of this method is not related to the shape of the source region. Based on the modified method a two-dimensional viscous numerical wave tank is constructed and validated from different aspects. Using the validated numerical model, simulations of interactions between tsunami-like solitary waves and the breakwater are performed. The surface elevation, pressure distribution and flow mechanics of the interaction are investigated in detail. Our findings will help to improve the understanding in the occurrences of tsunami-induced damages on the piled baffle penetrated breakwater and provide information for structural optimization designs.