Incompressible SPH flow model for wave interactions with porous media

The paper presents an Incompressible Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (ISPH) method to simulate wave interactions with a porous medium. The SPH method is a mesh free particle modeling approach that is capable of tracking the large deformation of free surfaces in an easy and accurate manner. The ISPH method employs a strict incompressible hydrodynamic formulation to solve the fluid pressure and the numerical solution is obtained by using a two-step semi-implicit scheme. The ISPH flow model solves the unsteady 2D Navier–Stokes (NS) equations for the flows outside the porous media and the NS type model equations for the flows inside the porous media. The presence of porous media is considered by including additional friction forces into the equations. The developed ISPH model is first validated by the solitary and regular waves damping over a porous bed and the solitary wave interacting with a submerged porous breakwater. The convergence of the method and the sensitivity of relevant model parameters are discussed. Then the model is applied to the breaking wave interacting with a breakwater covered with a layer of porous materials. The computational results demonstrate that the ISPH flow model could provide a promising simulation tool in coastal hydrodynamic applications.